I'll chime in with my 2 cents on this not so unexpected development.

1) I find it quite funny to read the comments from people talking about the expense of the tablet going up. $479 (retail) is not cheap to begin with and when I compare this to the people over on Howard Forums who spend $550 every month on a new phone its totally Lol-worthy. I know these are two very different markets but for Nokia the N-series have always been branded as premium devices there is nothing "value" about them.

2) The benefit of having an unlocked 3.5G telephony module is simple, if you want to use the HSPA then use it, if you don't want to use it then don't put a SIM in it. The second a GSM module is put into a device doesn't mean that a carrier will get to mess with it. Just ask the legions of NA S60 fans here like me who have used $400-$500 dollar devices contract free for years.

3) I am on ATT, there is a $15 a month plan for *unlimited HSDPA access on my N78. I also tether my N810 every day and have not ever incurred any charges even though I know I am playing with fire on this one.

4) This is my dream platform OMAP3, hardware 3d acceleration, HSPA and all while running Maemo, this has only been reinforced by my recent purchase of an N78 S60 which is the latest and greatest (in North America) symbian phone and it still doesn't hold a candle to the capabilities of my little tablet.

5) Texrat - "skunkworks" sounds so condescending.