>But it wasn't the final step - they're pre-production phones built for showing off and developing on. They still had a boatload of work to do before firing up the factories for a full production batch.

The MeeGo device was step 5 of 5 of a plan that's been going on for at least 5 years, if not more. And if the numbers are true, 92,000 pre-production units? Maybe, but that seems a bit high.

>If you have the choice of selling 95 000 copies of a newspaper, or 100 000 copies of two similar newspapers split roughly evenly, what are you gonna do? Smart companies don't cannibalise sales of their own devices.

Look at previous Nokia releases. Kbd vs. no kbd, heck even the names are almost the same C6 vs. C6-01 (released a few months apart), or E7 vs. C7 (let's not get carried away with precise examples, this is for illustration purposes). Anyways, my point is this kind of kbd. vs. non-kbd phone at Nokia is quite standard.

>Where did you get that figure from, out of interest?

From the board and the internet. Yeah, I know....

>Not really - Nokia don't want their name on a phone they're not willing to back with a Warranty.[/QUOTE]

I Agree. But that has nothing to do with cannibalism.