Tell that to all the people that want OpenOffice or the Gimp on their tablet.

I hope you're wrong, but I fear you may be right.

As the euphoria of the Summit wears off a bit, it becomes very clear that Nokia has made a lot of vague teases and hopeful-sounding promises about the future, but not a whole lot of substance.

This is actually very much On-Topic: Dr. Jaaksi (et al) very proudly announced that they were dropping open-source code to coincide with OSiM and the Summit. But what exactly did they give us? Is there any hardware out there we can try out the HDSPA source code on? And what's with the "alpha-quality" wlan driver they gave us? Where's the real driver? You know, the one used on the tablet?

I'm being forced to trust that Nokia is going to Get It Right next time. Despite the fact that the IT was the most amazing piece of technology ever to be held in my hands, there is definitely the feeling that the tablets are amazing in spite of Nokia. I am still amazed that such devices came out of Nokia in the first place.

My conversations with Nokia employees and the presentations from some of the Nokia people made it clear to me that there's still a lot of the Big Old Corporation in Nokia, and the BOC is pushing back, hard, against the tablets and the whole maemo idea. I got the distinct impression that they're no Google when it comes to corporate culture. The presentation by the IT department showed that the tablets are used by a tiny portion of the Nokia employees, and that their internal attempts to use the tablets as a productivity tool have not met with a great deal of success.

Brontide, I hope you're wrong. I hope the new tablet's "shitload of processing power" (to quote, I think, Peter Schneider) and open architecture can make the impact that I hope will send ripples through the market. But the price has to be right, and Nokia has to stick to their promises, and most importantly, they've got to get it done fast. Time's winged chariot is right on their heels, and there's an avalanche of competition coming fast. I'm terrified that they're going to drop the ball here: some middle manager with a poor grasp of the situation and poor oversight from upper management is going to piddle away precious months making his people do the wrong stuff (this may have already happened, according to my sources), or some deal with a third party is going to fall through, or the telcos are going to arm-wrestle Nokia's money people to pull the plug on the whole project, or the marketing types, with no understanding of what this device actually is, are going to position the new tablet incorrectly, or they won't be able to get the price down to the point where it is affordable by the people who really need it, or, more importantly, the people who will be the best evangelists, ie the "hip" young technophiles...

Wow, this is a long post. I'm stopping now.