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What I wonder is whether or not the Clambook can be manufactured at a cost significantly less than a laptop. It seems to me that there's a good chance that in order to function at all, it's going to have to contain 50-75% of the parts that a laptop has. If so, this does allow for a "savings" of 25-50% when it comes to parts.

But... the cost of production includes so much more than just parts. The way I see it, these costs wouldn't be much less for the Clambook than they are for a laptop - for very little savings.

So, the consumer could choose between a Clambook for, say, $200* - or a real laptop with similar capabilities for $300.

* (and the standard disclaimer at the bottom of the Clambook ads... "smartphone not included")

The benefits of Clambook are huge for travelers that do not already own tablets. The problem with tablets is the cost and the 10" screens are just to small to do productivity work. In addition to hard drive and optical drive costs you would also save on OS licensing so the cost should be in the $150 range, most of which is for design and the screen. If the device is any more it won't catch (in my opinion). I think the biggest hurdle for this device is compatibility. While iPhone will never conform to other cell phone standards (like power cables) you still have phones using miniUSB instead of microUSB and older phones I am guessing will just not be supported. I am assuming there will be different models to support each device. Another this I would like to see is more port connections once docked. How will I attach my non-bluetooth gamepad? Great idea but only seeing the device in action will tell us if it will stand up to the real world.

Celio RedFly Update? Will they come trolling with a patent suit?

http://www.celiocorp.com

Dunno why Celio could not follow through on this better than they have. Several years ago I tried one of their Redfly's with my Windows Mobile phone, and it was nice enough as a screen/keyboard expansion. However, being the size of a netbook, but with a lower res screen (800x480 - lot of phones have that now, even my WinMo Imagio), it did not make as much sense, most of the time, as just using the phone to tether a same-size netbook with at least a 1024x600 screen (or a 'super' netbook Fujitsu Lifebook P1610/20 @ 1280x768). I still have a Redfly (cheap from eBay) for messing around...

If the Redfly had evolved intelligently, they could have been leading this charge instead of being an evolutionary dead-end. Now they just peddle "Screenslider" to use the mobile device like a VNC client, or extended monitor for a "PC" (only Windows of course), and a dock gadget to work as glorified KVM switch to use a monitor and keyboard with the same old bunch of WinMo and BB phones as my old "Mobile Companion" brainless netbook - no "modern" phones it seems - at least the Screenslider seems to work on Android and iPad ("RSN").