the whole "step x of y" wasn't a phrase that was coined at NW09. it's a plan that i first heard of when they introduced the N810, and probably it had been mentioned before.

so if he hadn't said it during the keynote, somebody would have asked later: "is this step 4 now?" - there was no way around it anyway.

also, nokia needs to be very careful about how they present this device. it's not even close to feature parity with S60, it even lacks features you see in S40 IIRC. if they say "this is our new best phone", everybody would compare it... and everybody would soon find out. the way they are downplaying things now, they can always say: "right, it doesn't have feature X. it's still in an early stage, it's a niche product. take the N97 if you want a real smartphone."

i don't see anything wrong with this strategy.