My train of thought on this one...
Stick with bench mounted instead of handheld, because handheld has too many variables that will muddy the requirements.
So, a bench meter. Well, it's gotta be more than a bench meter of course, and with the suggestions so far it's actually becoming more of a general purpose "bench instrument/lab system".
So what would the average punter want from such a system?
Well, all the usual multimeter stuff and data logging that's been talked about, simple very low end oscilloscope functionality, maybe a simple logic analyser / serial protocol system, some form of simple functional generator, and a lab power supply. Bingo, you have a complete mini lab in one unit.
But I wouldn't try and make it all the one unit, I'd have them as separate modules. One as the bench meter/data logger/oscilloscope, one as the bench power supply (that could also power the other modules), one as a PC/Ethernet/WiFi comms module etc.
Such a system would need some thought into any required comms between systems, or they could just be made separate and stackable.
I'm actually working on a very low cost bench power supply at the moment, and was actually considering those stackable bench enclosures (
http://www.polycase.com/category/zn-series.html). This is a spin off my almost already developed uSupply project which is another very low cost but quite capable power supply (the uSupply has made a cameo blog appearance, but everyone almost certainly missed it)
Food for thought.
Dave.