They are so very good at producing pretty promo material and nice web site presentations but they fail to recognize that in real business the true large scale push of a product and services comes from 'referrals' (word of mouth). This occurs most strongly from 'the user base'.

Why is it they are thrilled to see multiple N800 orders roll in inspired by people like us promoting the platform to others, yet they are perhaps failing to recognize that if the core user base grows justifiably frustrated and looses faith in their product......they are done....and will be finished off completely by the negative storm....very very fast.

Nokia's & co's advertising itself will be but a whisper in the face of the Itouch/iPhone Apple loudness if this core user base is not critically supported....with effective effort.

I had a healthy debate last night with a pro photographer friend who I originally promoted Palm TX to and then later N800 to consider purchasing. In the story of my frustrations with my N800 and the OS and install issues in general, he ended up with an iTouch. It is a sad little thing compared to my N800. No speakers and it has a small screen for a photographer to find much value......BUT it works consistently and with a few funky tricks like the magnify technique. He's keeping it.

So we just lost another possible N series customer(at the pro level) for no good reason other than this OS2008 shmozle and the repository issues etc etc etc etc etc.

That really means they just lost probably 5->10 other sales that might have come through his word of mouth promotion.

end note: I just bought a Canon SD750 camera based largely on his advice. He has one for in his pocket and spoke highly of it. Case in point.