Software development is, of course, an entirely different discipline to hardware design and manufacture, so I can forgive some manufacturers of good hardware if they are a little short in the programmer department, but for some there is no excuse.

Take my brand new Treo 650, as capable a smartphone as you could ever want: a fast processor, PalmOS 5.4, a big and bright screen, excellent expansion capabilities and a nice miniature qwerty keyboard. But good as it is, the Treo does not even come close to its true capabilities out of the box because the bundled software leaves a lot to be desired, to put it very politely.

For instance, the built-in dial pad looks primitive next to some third-party apps that I have tried. So does the ringtone manager. The volume control is useless, because it does not support changing the different device settings independently, despite the fact that the hardware and OS can do this.

There is no built-in way to turn off the top LED which is very bright - bright enough to flash a giant green pattern on my bedroom ceiling at night. There is no usable voice recorder. The supplied e-book reader is crippled and confusing. Word and Excel are useless on such a small screen, and fonts are limited without a third party hack.

Graffiti, Palm's marvellous handwriting recognition system for handhelds, is actually included on the Treo. You just cannot get to it. It is in the ROM, but switched off. Who decided that this was a good idea?