Let me see if I can sum this up from a differnet angle. You're trying to pitch this as an inexpensive Linux-based PDA to the 38% in your poll.
So, my question is: Why do people want a linux based PDA?
There are the Open Source fanatics who'd run anything as long as it's GPL. They won't care so much what they're running it on.
Then there are the people who want Linux because of it's power and flexiblility. This group is most likely split between capabilities and price - your mini-laptop group and you're inexpensive Linux PDA group. The mini-laptop group is definitely out.
Now, take the device you're suggesting. 320x240 screen, no keyboard, no possibility of expansion. With the specs of 32mb ROM, and 64mb RAM, I'm assuming that it uses a Pocket PC-like storage method - OS in ROM, Ram split between storage and memory, so it's pretty low on memory as well. This can be worked around by using an SD card, which is slow and limits the device by permanently occupying it's *only* expansion slot. It is priced at 2/3 the cost of the C1000, from which I take to mean at most ~$300 US.
At that price, you're going to lose the interest of the users looking for truly low end pricing.
So now you're left with people looking for a relatively inexpensive but flexible PDA.
Without a keyboard it is going to be harder to enter data into. With no expansion slots other than SD you can't add peripherals. The low memory limits the software you can install and run. You're device will have either Wi-Fi or BT, so you can either surf the net quickly or sync through BT (or for those lucky enough to have BT cell phones or computers, surf slowly)
So where's the flexibility? It's just a PDA now, albeit one that runs Dillo and Ko/Pi instead of Pocket IE and Outlook. Who cares what OS it runs if it is really just a PDA?
You said yourself on the first page that flexibility isn't the strength of a low-end device. If it isn't, then the only market you've got left for an underpowered and unexpandable PDA is based on it's 100% openness. And even then, if you can't extend the device in any way, what are you going to do with it? Recompile newer kernels to eke out another 1% out of an outdated processor? You're stuck with the same Email, web and PIM that every other PDA in the market has. If you go with BT then maybe the unit can be "expanded" by using BT peripherals. Unfortunately, they're expensive and inconvenient, forcing you to carry and charge multiple devices. That eliminates the "inexpensive" market again.
The original Z's were differentiated by being Linux, their keyboard, and the fact that almost nothing on the market had both SD and CF when they came out. The newer models had better screens than anything else out there, in addition to Linux and keyboards. The 3000 was the first PDA in the world to include a 4gb hard drive, in addition to Linux and the keyboard. Sharp has always been ahead of the PDA curve in some manner.
Take away the keyboard and the expansion, and what do you have left? Linux that you can't do much of anything with. Don't underestimate the impact that the Z's hardware has on the viability of the platform. You don't see a booming import market for A300's, do you?
Now, don't take this rant the wrong way. Having a 100% open and supported platform is a great idea.
You just won't be selling one to me.
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