Maybe there's still no answer to this question. When the Nokia 770 came out it was unique and something completely new on the market. Now three years later the world looks different and people stopped looking at NITs at weird angles because they got used to the idea of tablets thanks to the UMPC and iPhone hype. But still, what is it for? Nokia claims the N800 and N810 are internet tablets (the same was claimed for the 770). Many users however use it for more, so it becomes some kind of laptop replacement (again, the same was already true for the 770). So, did anything change?

The thing that really changed was the UI. When the 770 arrived, it had a completely stylus-driven UI. This is no surprise because the closest relatives to the tablets where PDAs at that time. Nobody ever thought of controlling their PDAs solely with fingers.
But as time evolved, people found out that the new use cases of the NITs are often better controlled with fingers. Nokia must have noticed this and started some finger-friendliness experiments in OS 2007.
I think if they want to go to mass market with a device that isn't a PDA, and less capable than a UMPC, a finger-friendly UI is essential. Not because of the iPhone, but because "mass market" means non-geeks, and many non-geeky people would never accept a geeky stylus that could easily be lost and needs to be pulled out first.

A good finger-friendly UI could be used with a stylus as well. But I think that before discussing about the
proper UI for the NITs, everyone should find an answer to the question of what NITs actually are good for herself/himself.
I think the user base will always be split into two parties: "internet tablet users" who love it simple and want to touch with fingers, and "pocket computer users" who want a real desktop on their tablet and use a stylus as mouse replacement.

For myself, I found out that I rather am a "internet tablet user". This might have to do with the fact that I use computers most of the time for system administration and software development. In my opinion, doing these sorts of things is really awkward on the tiny screen and with the built-in keyboard. OK, I could use a BT keyboard, but then I would have to carry a lot of stuff around, and I could use the eeePC as well (because the keyboard is built-in).
All other tasks like web surfing, multimedia, book reading, games are well handled by my NITs. But those don't require a real desktop. The tablet 2008 UI is good for this kind of stuff.


The same here, but with different use cases. It replaces my PC for web browsing and checking mail.

I seldom use my phone for webbrowsing or anything other than phone, calendar, and contacts. The webbrowser on my windows mobile phone is crappy. And that's what I have a NIT for.

Yeah, I fully agree. But is the latter UI a responsibility of Nokia? The community has already ported great desktops to the NIT (gnome, icewem, kde, enlightenment, xfce, windowmaker) so maybe the "micro-laptop" UI is already there and Nokia can fully concentrate on a mass market compatible "internet tablet" UI.

A crappy UI is one that doesn't fit your use cases. Of course OS 2008 is crappy for the micro-laptop use case.