Careful now Lumiaman Pre 2007/2008 Symbian on a Nokia was "the thing". Even a Nokia without Symbian was "the thing". But no matter how good Nokia+Symbian was, it was never a mass marked product, and was not marketed as a mass market product, at least not before 2007. After 2007 it became a mass market product, but it wasn't a good enough mass market product, it had no chance against Android and iPhone. As an enthusiast toy though, Symbian devices still are top of the line with the 808.

Neither the iPhone nor WP are enthusiast devices. My Lumia 800 is the best everyday phone I have had, but anything more than that and it fails, falls through completely. Atm I can live with that, and I hope (and believe) WP8 becomes something more. The N9 also falls through IMO as a enthusiast device, it's too limited HW vise and the OS is also too restricted. It has nothing of the sheer, brute "Old school Nokia smartphone" like for instance the N8 or in particular the 808. The N900 was much better in that respect than the N9. The N9 doesn't make it as an enthusiast device or as a mass market device. It had potential as a mass market device though, but grandmothers and multitasking phones are two incompatible devices, lots of geek stuff would have to be thrown away for that to happen.