Yeah, and that would play right into my "bitter community = lost sales" thing. So what if someone has an older device. Don't leave them high and dry, because if you do, they will be highly unlikely to buy a new device, no matter how nice it is. They'll go elsewhere. Just support the old one until it dies, then cash in when said user buys a new one along the way as the old one is slowly coming to its end. It's not that hard. But the problem is, too many companies have adopted the "throw away" mentality. They expect you to throw away your old toy when the shiny new one comes on the market. Uh, it don't work that way, and companies need to start realizing that. Heck, I've got 3 generations of mp3 players here, the shiny new one, the middle aged one, and the dinosaur each serve their own separate purposes, and each will likely stay in my collection until each dies. But that won't stop me from replacing it with a new one either. Now if they cut off support for the older device prematurely, then I'll definately pick up feet and go elsewhere when the dinosaur dies.

Just because said company has a shiny new toy, if they won't support the older one for a reasonable period of time, what reason do I have to stick with them when I buy my next new device? None. If they can't guarantee long term support, then that just says to me that I'm a cash cow and I mean nothing to them except the profits they can make off me. And if that's the case, I refuse to give them my money. They'll have to get it from some other poor sap.

And all companies, not just Nokia, need to realize that this is true not just with me, but millions of other people as well. It just falls in line with the simple rule of business: Take care of your customers first, your employees second, and everything else will take care of itself. Every company who's applied that principle has succeeded. The only exceptions are those companies who have made bad choices and marketed something nobody wanted. Otherwise, it's got a 100% success rate.