You're right.

However, I didn't buy a Linux-based device innocently. It wasn't absurd to consider Maemo as a platform, which older devices would benefit as newer versions come out.

Well, Nokia's policy didn't surprise me a lot, though. They try to bind software obsolescence to hardware obsolescence. I should have expected that. I still think Nokia 770 is a great product, and I probably would have bought one nonetheless. It was a good attempt to approach my needs of accessing the Internet in a more ubiquitous way, which means forgetting the device and prioritizing content--depending less on place and time. And it was well-designed and not so expansive.

Now, as a consumer of the Internet, I realize that some of my primary needs rely on proprietary technology, that is, RealAudio and Flash. As opposed to some other people, I don't really care about Nokia fixing bugs on OS 2006. It is quite usable already. I am more concerned with Flash upgrading, I mean, with basic features that make an Internet tablet obsolete in a year if outdated. With closed-source, rapidly evolving technologies, Nokia is able to choose when to make such a device obsolete.

I am more concerned with proprietary technologies on the web than Nokia's loyalty towards consumers, though.