cheers, it has prompted an email of my own:

Dear Mr Elop,

Please understand that I am not writing to you to rant about the WP7 direction, I accept the fact that Nokia did not believe Meego would bring them the level of success deemed necessary, rather I am worried that Nokia's WP7 marketing strategy will prevent me from acquiring a Nokia N9 on a typical carrier subsidised contract within the UK.

I have no doubt that I will be able to buy an N9 from etailers such as Play.com, etc, but the N900 which I have happily used since its UK launch was £450 sim-free when it arrived, whereas my T-mobile contract with an unlocked handset was £110 upfront followed by eighteen payments of £20, or £470 in total. I am very keen to own and use a Nokia N9 but question why, in the UK, I would willingly pay the RRP for a phone when I can get it along with eighteen months of calls, texts and internet for £20 more.

I understand that you would urge me to have a closer look at Nokia's new, and no doubt innovative, WP7 handsets that will be arriving in the near future, but I remain uninterested in them just as I remain uninterested in iPhones or Android phones. I merely seek reassurance that Nokia's UK product support for the N9 will not preclude UK carriers from offering this handset on contract?

If you can offer this reassurance then I will be a very happy person, and can promise to remain a happy Nokia customer for years to come.

Kind regards

JBT