I have to agree here.
I've had the opportunity (or headache) of dealing with multiple types of mobile devices over the years.
The Pocket PC is a pretty good solution for what it is. It syncs fairly seamlessly with Microsoft Office and everything is happy. But what about clients who use an email and calendar other than outlook?
That's where we look at Palms. Unfortunately, Palms strength is also its' weakness. The Hotsync software allows you to sync with various email clients and calendars, however...it's very buggy. I've spent countless hours trying to get Hotsync to "talk" with different applications...sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.
Then we have the issue of mobile connectivity. There's no guarantees you'll have a wireless connection when you're on the road. Sometimes you're stuck with good ol' Cat 5 or *gasp* a phone line. Chances are you're going to have to carry a couple of add-in cards for the device along with the necessary cables.
Another thing to consider is whether you plan to use the PDA email client to retrieve your mail while you're mobile. Does your organization allow you to send/receive emails from remote IP's? Many businesses do not! So you'll need a VPN client on your PDA to gain access...good luck with that...there are some VPN solutions that don't play nicely with PDA's.
This leaves you high and dry!
I guess you could always get your email via the web (if your company has this setup). For me, a PDA is too much of a PITA to use for tasks like this. It's too small, I hate using the stylus. Web pages don't display very nicely.
This is where a Blackberry is useful. My department has them and there are mixed feelings about the device. I kind of like mine while others feel like it's akin to talking into a "kleenex box".
I have my corporate mail setup to forward to my blackberry. Whenever I'm on the road, if someone emails me--it goes to my desk and also my blackberry. If it's something important I can call the person back or whip up a short email. I don't use the blackberry for contacts or calendar..or even web browsing.
If I'm going on an extended trip somewhere, I'll bring a laptop. It's basically a mobile command station. I can VPN into my organization and then run TS client to access any of my servers. Pretty soon we'll be upgrading to an Avocent IP KVM switch which will give me bios level access to any of my servers remotely...it even has a modem port in case the network is down!
Ultimately you have to use the tools that work for you. For me, a BB and a Laptop work fine.