If I’ve heard it once from (male) business travellers in the past few weeks, I’ve heard it 20 times: “My partner wants an iPad,” they say, “and I can see they’re pretty neat. But I can’t envisage myself buying one.”

It’s not just that men can’t quite find a place in their lives for Apple’s newest offspring, which, admittedly, at the time of writing, none of us has actually handled yet; men can’t find a place for the iPad – a giant iPod Touch, in effect – in their travel bags either.

“I wouldn’t mind one, although I’m not sure what it’s for,” says my friend Neil, a board director with a big public company who flies and takes trains for business a lot. “The thing is, I’ve got just enough room in my bag for a laptop, the papers and a few documents. I’m just not looking to increase my gadget count.”

Introducing a new genre of gadget is always risky, but Apple is the master of it. Tablets without a keyboard are not a new idea, but, just as back in 2001 when the iPod took the MP3 player and popularised it overnight, it’s highly likely that the iPad will catapult tablets into the mass market.

There’s a strong possibility, however, that Apple is barking up wholly the wrong tree staking so much R&D effort, as well as marketing, on the iPad, when what the world is crying out for, what would guarantee sales in the tens of millions, is a smaller Apple laptop, of netbook size or smaller – a light, portable machine on which business travellers, students and anyone else who likes to type on the move can enjoy all the benefits of Apple computers.

At the moment, there’s only one really premium quality netbook, which is Nokia’s Booklet 3G, and, while sporting a distinctly Apple-esque price tag of around €800 in the UK, it’s still a Windows machine – and still a netbook, which means it’s still not as small or light as some business travellers would like it.

So what about a genuinely pocketsized PC? Is such a thing available, and if it is, is it usable? Back in the early 1990s, there was a British-designed and -made brand, Psion, whose 5Mx model in particular was a truly pocketsized and usable PC. The popular 5Mx was superb to write on,

even though it used unconventional proprietary software. The 5Mx is still available reconditioned for enthusiasts from a variety of websites; I know one New York academic who still writes his books on a 5Mx. However, the old machine isn’t suitable for internet use other than when adapted by suitably qualified geeks and doesn’t really have a place in 2010 other than as an eccentricity.

Which leaves, or did until earlier this year, no real pocket PC on the market anywhere – a great disappointment for those of us who dream of a PC in our pocket on which it’s possible to write, if not a novel, then at least a document of reasonable length.

All that changed when a small, unknown London company, brought out in January the PsiXpda – a smart, well-made and practical pocket Windows PC, which has a proper, if small, QWERTY keyboard and even takes a SIM card so users can tap into mobile internet.

The €515 PsiXPda will likely remind some users of the Psion of old. It’s meant to; the founders are ex-Psion guys. The device measures 175mm by 84mm by 25mm and weighs 468g, has 1GB of RAM, and uses a stylus or finger for touchscreen navigation.

To add to the inbuilt 16GB memory, users can slot in a standard media card, which can take up to 32GB of data. Battery life ranges from around three to five hours.

There is no knowing if the PsiXpda will grab enough of a mass market to survive, but it’s a serious machine, and it’s unique – something that can’t be said of much gadgetry. One to watch, and very possibly to buy while you can.

TECH SPEC
PsiXpda
PsiXpda

Price €515
Size 175cm x 84mm x 25mm
Weight 468g
Memory / Hard drive 1GB RAM / 16GB
Battery life 3-5 hours

TECH SPEC
NOKIA
Booklet 3G

Price €800 Size 264mm x 185mm x 19.9mm
Weight 1,250g
Memory / Hard drive 1GB RAM / 120GB
Battery life 12 hours (max)