We can sit here and claim that it is/was Marketing that holds Nokia back, but thats just delusion.

The mainstream may claim we're *geeks* because we care about hardware details while they completely ignore hardware details when they buy their iPhones, but there's a deeper truth.

Nokia almost HAS to publish specs for their phones for savvy buyers to buy them because Nokia hasn't always traditionally brought out great software experiences. The n97 is a prime example. The n95 for all its laudable features was slower than molasses compared to the swiftness of Maemo and iPhones today.
A company like Apple doesn't publish its hardware specs and doesn't have to because they have a proven track record of putting out great software experiences, regardless of the hardware. It doesn't matter whats running under the hood, Apple hasn't traditionally released a product until the experience runs smooth like butter. So regular consumers haven't learned to care about hardware. We, on the otherhand, have been forced to care about hardware as a way of finding which products will likely offer the best experience. I hope this paragraph gets across the main idea I'm trying to present. We as nokia fans have traditionally had to watch Nokia very closely and inspect their products well before we buy them (through review sites and youtube videos, etc) because I'm sure we've all been burned before. The n97, the 5800XM (which I bought and returned TWICE because I wanted to love it so much but it just sucked).

Next, Symbian60 v3 was a good OS in the days before the iPhone. It was a good OS on my n80, on my 6500. It was a good OS for the n95 and all the other keypad only phones. The s60 ui was not meant for touchscreens. The debacle of s60v5 has left a sour taste in my mouth and i'm sure many others. S^3 looks like what s60v5 should have been, which is too little too late.

In short Symbian is dead and this is a good thing. If s60v3 made its way to what is currently s40 land, it could live on, at least for a little while longer, but the idiots in charge won't do it.

Nokia needs to abandon it and choose Meego for everything.

EDIT

Choose Meego for everything or a combination Meego and Windows Phone 7 (Sorry had to do it, I'm really excited for WP7).