An interesting (to me) question goes like this:
Ben Nanonote clearly had appeal, but never took flight. Many reasons, it is not productive to invest mental energy in the the "why did it not work out" question, at least for me.
But I wonder if a niche remains (or not) for a similar but modern device. We live in a world awash with really nice small portable devices, but they run Android or Apple iOS. Somewhat open mobile environments, but still IMO "don't know, too soon to really evaluate.." include
Sailfish OS from Jolla, the ex-Nokia crew
Firefox OS from Mozilla
Ubuntu Mobile (not positive of current name)
Before you go there, yes, I DO understand that none of these are as close to the ideal of open-ness as this dedicated (if small...) group desires. I explicitly have NOT evaluated available handset or small tablet hardware, but remember a couple of options that seem reasonably open.
Nanonote was really small and compact, and had a physical keyboard.
Battery life was considered reasonable (do not know how it performed in the real world)
It did not have capability to be USB host, a severe limitation.
It did not have Wi-Fi or Ethernet so getting on the Internet was Not Easy.
It was however a charming device. Thanks to Werner, the single user-accessible port was used in creative ways.
Ben Nanonote had low-res display.
Ben's keyboard was cramped but the feel was not bad.
Nanonote did not support touch.
Yet a few hundred (my estimate fewer than 1500) people bought the Ben Nanonote. Apparently the number who continue to use Ben Nanonote is really low. Maybe... N=50, worldwide?
Is there a market niche for:
Totally open hardware design
small form factor (think about the size of iPhone 6 or Samsung S6, or a bit larger, e.g. Note 4,
with a physical keyboard option. It could be attached magnetically, a la "two in One" laptop/tablet hybrids.
In that configuration the keyboard could have a heft extra battery to provide mass so device is stable when sitting on a table.
Anyway, yes, Werner, I am well aware the cost of development would be high. Well, maybe not quite so high if an off-the shelf dev board could be the computing guts...
Look forward to the ideas this group will offer. S