The problem is that there simply aren't enough of a market for geek-centric devices like the N900.

In order for Nokia to compete, it has no choice BUT to make a mass market device, thats from the UI layer looks 'dumb', but has enough oomph and open source so that the geeks can also use it as a powerhouse.

An extremely delicate balance. As much as people on this forum complain about it and ask for features built in, Nokia will probably ignore them - they want the people that would not consider joining this forum, nor have much interest in geekish device to buy the N900.

Money makes the world go round so nokia have no choice but to comply and compete with the iPhone/Android.

But I do think that if the Nokia N97 was a bit more powerful AND had a web browser better than the iPhone then even with symbian they could be onto a winner.