I just converted back to a Windows Mobile Smartphone user on the last Friday. I bought a brand new Dopod 535 (Smartphone 2003) at 1,980 CNY. Only 200 Euro or 240 USD and doesn't need any service activation. Very cheap, isn't it?
I used to have a Dopod 515 (also Smartphone 2003) in 2004 summer but I changed to Treo 270 (a Palm OS phone with QWERTY keyboard) because the Chinese IME on Dopod 515 sucks. A few weeks later, I sold the Treo 270 and changed to the Ericsson T39+iPAQ 1940 solution because I love ExchangeActivesync rather than an SMS-mania. After another few weeks, I say I like all-in-one-box and I'm happy to find the shortest wood plate of Dopod 515, the Chinese IME, gets greatly improved.
I do think it's time for you to get your first Windows Mobile 2003 phones, either Pocket PC phone or Smartphone. The price, the battery, the software, the OS's stability are all desirable. As per the softwares, there are reported over 16,000 kinds of softwares for Pocket PC (by www.pocketgear.com) and 700+ for Smartphones (by www.smartphone.net). I bet the number will be doubled every 18 monthes (My Moore's Law :p).
Below is my must-have softwares list for Smartphone 2003:
1. Freewares
PHM Registry Editor，the regedit.exe on the phone. Dopod 565 users need this to tweak menu mapping.
XBar 1.0，the "Alt+Tab" on the phone.
Smartphone Remote Display，the Remote Desktop from PC to the phone. It's in Windows Mobile Developers Power Toy.
Jeyo Personalizer 1.0，change the start menu order
SmartSS, the "Print Screen" on the phone
2. Sharewares. Buy it unless it comes with your device.
SmartphoneNotes, sync the Notes in Outlook (Why they guys in Redmond remove this from Smartphone's Pocket Outlook?)
Resco Explorer 2003, the Windows Explorer on the phone (Why they guys in Redmond don't ship with a built-in explorer?)
Plus! Sync & Go, I love it. The latest news video clips are silently sync-ed to the storage card once you plug the cable or put your device on cradle. A trick: it's CAB is only for Pocket PC but just ignore it. The desktop app could sync to Smartphone's storage card without installing any app on the device.
You could find more Smartphone softwares at:
http://www.smartphone.net/
http://airfagev.com/downloads.asp
http://www.pdasky.com/soft/428_1.htm