Windows Phone Thoughts: The Death Of Style

Ed Hardy and Steve Bush over at Brighthand have a sweet spot for the HP iPAQ 1900 series. In his review of the original 1910, Steve wrote: "The iPAQ h1910 Pocket PC is the picture of understated beauty", in his review of the iPAQ h1940 Ed wrote: "I can comfortably say that HP's h1900 series is, hands down, the best looking group of handhelds ever made". The 4100 series was clearly based on the 1900 form factor, and Steve wrote in his review: "The HP h4155 Pocket PC is an object of pure elegance, with a simplicity of design that could have just as well come out of Cupertino". And now, with the new line-up of iPAQs, that form factor will come to an end. In the linked article, Ed Hardy has described why he feels this is a bad move, and he concludes with the following remarks: "The best form factor ever created for a Pocket PC is the one developed for the h1900. HP would be short-sighted to give it up. This company needs to develop more handhelds using this basic design if it wants to keep growing its market share". What do you think? Is Ed right and is HP at risk of losing market share by leaving this design, or do you feel the iPAQs could also have success in the market using a different (and from what I can tell: more boxy) design?