I see I need to elaborate on that original one-liner (I tend to be a bit terse when using the on-screen tapboard on the tablet, nothing like a real keyboard :-)...

Actually I mostly agree with you, as sometimes happens, except maybe for the end bit.

What I meant is that when I bought into the 770, and its proclaimed future, I had been using a Zaurus for some time. The hardware was fantastic for its time (and still unequaled in some respects, just like a Psion or a Newton), and the system & software probably OK at the very beginning. But it had already been clear for some time that Sharp was just riding its original masterstroke, and milking the platform's domestic success, with very few improvements from one hardware model to the next (750 vs 760 vs 860, anyone ?...) and just about none in the system/software department. The result was that outside of Japan the Zaurus lived, and still lives, just as if Sharp didn't exist, and mostly though its enthusiast user base. Unfortunately, from a user's point of view, the results were/are not pretty : fragmentation, quarrels between teams, dozens of competing ROMs incompatible with each other, and not one that you could call feature complete and/or user-ready.

In late 2005 I believed the 770 was another nice, innovative bit of hardware, but one that might escape such a sorry fate because its maker seemed to "get" the open-source game, thought globally, sold it worldwide, and looked like it could pull a "benevolent dictator" trick : allow the enthusiast community to grow and breed the platform, while acting as a central clearinghouse to maintain its unity and consistency. This is a known hallmark of many successful OSS standards : Linux/Torvalds, Samba/Tridgell, Python/van Rossum, Perl/Wall, etc., etc.

I do agree with you that in this matter, despite much posturing and feeble (or not very visible) attempts, Nokia's delivery has been utterly disappointing.

At this point, sadly, it looks like another (big) company unable to play the trump cards in its hands before it's too late, to relate to its user base, and recognize the value of its inside assets (that's for you Tex :-).

I hope I'm wrong, but this mess reminds me of the recent "History of Psion" recently published by the Register :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/26/psion_special/

Psion had a dominant, first-to-market position, innovative projects, and the right people to implement them (some of which later went on to create the iPod and Tom Tom success stories). Yet it faltered through lack of vision, lack of user communication, mismanagement, strategic errors and fear of competitors. Ring any bells ?

However, I don't share your optimism concerning OpenMoko. Yes, they have an innovative hardware approach ; but history shows that the problem is software, not hardware. Without someone with the right attitude at the helm, what's to prevent this new platform to also become a wasteland of half-baked, mostly abandoned hacker efforts ?