However if you want to go the route of knowing the name, then I think
dbus/hal is the best approach. It should work on every current shipping
Linux. I don't think it matters for people using 3 year old versions of
distros. As long as BitPim doesn't fail to run for folks who don't have
the infrastructure I don't see any problems.

In summary, forget the journey - just go straight for the destination :-)

Roger