By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer

With convergence for big personal computers all the rage, it's the stuff that fits in your pocket that's being combined into one device that is having a huge impact on the domestic tech market.

More important, it causes me to drool.

Yes, this is a gift column two days before Christmas - hint, hint.

Samsung is a big player on the wireless/PDA market. (Joseph Fuqua II photo)

Increasingly, high-end tech users are turning to combination cell phone/personal data assistants, which do almost everything that a full-size laptop can do.

Right now, these devices are called "smart phones," although that might not be for long, since Microsoft has obtained a trademark Smartphone for its proprietary operating system.

And they range in size and functionality.

There are full-size PDAs, operating either Microsoft's Pocket PC platform - my personal preference - or Palm, the same system that is on Palm Pilot. And for the style-conscious, there are clamshell-type cell phones that include a pocket-sized version of Pocket PC or Palm.

"I really like the fact that I am carrying only one device instead of two or three, even though I feel like I'm on the bleeding edge of this technology and that there still are a lot of glitches," says Frank J. Albi, chief executive officer of downtown-based Business Information Solutions Inc. He got a Samsung i700 Pocket PC phone a few months ago. "I actually use it for 90 percent of the work that I used to use my laptop for."

Another friend loves the Kyocera Palm version, especially the ability to touch the screen and have the phone dial the number, and the built in MP3 music player.

As a Pocket PC super user, Albi's device caught my eye when I met him last month.

It got me wondering: do these things really work, or are they overpriced, over-hyped toys?

I found out that most do what they say they do.

Two of the biggest players in this market - manufacturer Samsung and wireless provider Verizon - say that sales are brisk.

"We're sold out of them in a lot of stores that I go to," says Andre Tagliamonte, Samsung's division manager for Verizon Wireless. "We're definitely ahead of plan on this."

But expect to pay a lot more than for a regular cell phone, says one expert.

"These are still going to be a niche market, which means they are not going to be given away like a regular handset," says Dave Hoover, wireless analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based investor research firm Precursor. "They churn through those regular items, so they need to keep some kind of profit margin on something and they'll get it on the high-end stuff."

But if you can afford $300 to $500 for a device that does almost everything that a laptop does and get rid of your cell phone to boot, this might be a last-minute gift idea.

Be prepared to pay extra for e-mail access on these phones - Verizon's data access plan requires you to sync with your computer wirelessly, which means you have to leave that computer on: not a possibility where I work, due to corporate policy. And it is about $40 a month just for data access, on top of whatever cell phone air time you buy.

The phone I tested is a Samsung i600, which does not have the full functionality of a Pocket PC, but folds up to fit inside your pocket and syncs all Microsoft Contact and Outlook information.

Using that Microsoft Smartphone software, it can surf the Web on its small but very bright screen, and has an SD data card slot, which can be used to play music through the built in Media Player.

The phone features a full-function speakerphone and voice activation. It can also be used to play games.

And Samsung makes a very cool rubber keyboard that is almost full-size for all its models, although it falls short for someone used to a full foldout Targus Stowaway keyboard - such as myself.

Still, no written notes, no handwriting recognition (or graffiti in Palm), no Microsoft Word and no Excel.

I wouldn't buy one of these for myself, but for someone who just needs a smaller phone with a lot of contact info, this might be the one.

For someone who needs more functionality, there are Kyocera Palm phones or the Samsung i700, which looks just like a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ and runs Pocket PC, but has a cell phone and digital camera built in. Audiovox also makes a full-sized Pocket PC with a built-in cell phone.

I would have loved to test one of those as well.

But don't take any advice from me. Listen to someone who uses one.

"I would absolutely recommend this to someone who has a PDA and a cell phone and uses both extensively," says Albi, who recently took his on a trip and conducted all his e-business, including e-mail, on the drive when he was in range of a signal from his provider. "It could be a bit of heavy lifting for someone who hasn't used a PDA before. But for someone who is comfortable with one of those, this would be great."

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E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com