Didn't intel say as soon as Nokia said they are dropping meego the other manufacturers changed their minds about not making meego phones and started showing interest?
I think they didn't want to get involved with meego because of fear Nokia would have too much control over the OS.
If that's true then releasing this device and then dropping meego and standing back and watching where the other manufacturers are going to take meego and coming back into the game 2 years later if they have to drop microsoft or even start making dual boot phones would seem like a "keep your options open" strategy.