So I should be excited because... this thing (which, hypothetically, I really don't like that much) will be more popular with everyone else? I'm not one of those people who gets excited about "Is it the year of Linux on The Desktop?" either -- I buy my gadgets to please myself, and I'm not going to be excited about some gadget just because other people like it, or dismayed just because they don't.

While wider uptake is certainly good news for Maemo's continued development, if it appears that's because Maemo is moving away from what I want in a tablet, it's not going to do me much good, so it's not making me excited.

That said, I'm actually rather interested (I wouldn't quite say excited) because this new phone will deliver a lot of things I do like, and (assuming the d-pad, or more generally arrow keys, isn't quite as gone as it appears) seems to be an overall step up. But my interest is centered around a device I'm going to find useful, not around its wider market appeal.