Right now I'd agree with you, but let's take a longer view. As these countries "tech up"( and yeah I admit the charge of parochialism here but I don't know another way to phrase it), and access to charging points away from urban centres becomes more readily available, the need for a phone which lasts a week becomes less important. The features that a smartphone provides will become more important.

As that happens, which brands are going to gain the most? In my opinion it'll be the aspirational brands, the ones which say "Hey, I've made it. I'm on a level playing field in the international arena". And guess which one is top of the heap from an aspirational perspective?

I fully accept that Nokia are the market leaders, and I would love nothing better than to see them wipe Mr. Job's execrable business model off the map and have apple be forced to be more open and less proscriptive, but to do that they need to have a credible consumer smartphone out there. For all its glory, openness, amazing feature set and looks, the N900 isn't it ... yet.