If Nokia thinks spawning a branch and letting it hang to "see where it goes" is the way, the branch will die off. In the wind today's market is, you either put your weight behind and initiative and push, or you don't and it breaks off.

If Nokia doesn't back and push this with all their might, how is the Linux phone any different than a garage project on a larger scale? No adverts, no huge team, no no-cost-too-great directives.

Remember, Google, Apple and Microsoft are all pushing with all their might. I doubt Nokia even has the weight to push back, let alone use a single finger.

When there's a hurricane out, you don't put a 20-cm potted plant out and try to see how it fares. It won't end well.

Symbian is down to 44% (wiki). And falling. If 98% of my income comes from there. I'd be grabbing branches like a climber with bad footing.

Want to have some fun? Google up "smart phone market share". Yeah.

Who knows, maybe Nokia thinks of smartphone market as an experiment, a hiccup, a toy for the geek. Maybe they don't see this as the future of mobility. Maybe they think the market will always be 90% composed of dumb, keypad-and-red-green button phones like it was 10 years ago. In which case, I'd make like the rat and flee the ship.