I agree with the general tone here, apart from the post-edited excitement for ms-WiPho7 for which I can see no reason to exist at all.

Symbian was cut down to size (mindsharewise) for being too many after-thought Lego GUI blocks on top of an already stretched slightly hairy ball of OS originally meant for an old-school UI.

A bit like the French Minitel information network vs graphical and open internet with GUI browsers.

Except that I can see ever-improving old-school fully buttoned plainjane phones being around for a looong time. Mostly in the low-end but also somewhere in mid-range if Nokia are smart about it.

So what if the old-school OS/UI isn't the bee's knees as it was a decade ago. Keep it nimble and efficient, keep improving it around the edges, use it for ultra-simple phones for the kids and the elderly and the masses who aren't interested in "applet shops". (too bad that Nokia bet on outsourcing manufacturing while believing that OVI shopping portal would be their money-spinner)

Just don't add a whole mountain of additional hairball on it but keep it modular and fit for specific function(s). Ultra slim, ultra long-life, outdoor or granny-readable, location- and contact-aware, near-area direct peer-to-peer walkie-talkie mode (even video?), radio device for non-cellular tablets and notebooks etc. etc.

There's still amazing amount of value in the non-high-end market for both the users and the device manufacturers, but it's just not the place where the real cutting-edge excitement is. I also wonder if Symbian + QT restructuring will find a large enough place in the market or whether it will be both too heavy and too light-weight at the same time.

I also don't get why Nokia refused to use stock Android even as a stop-gap offering. It's not like they will be the sole controllers of Meego either. Hangover of OVI strategy? Maybe due to outsourcing their hardware has also ceased to be state-of-the-art and generally late to market wrt. latest components.

In short, Nokia's future is still up in the air and depends on 1) the low- and mid-range with Symbian finding their new bearings, 2) Meego kicking *** and reaching critical mass of must-have apps and value-adding functions as soon as they hit the ground and 3) Nokia somehow coming up with absolute kick-*** flagship Meego devices while also having attractive mid-range and affordable Meego devices to keep cheapo dime-in-a-dozen Android handsets from grabbing the mass volume marketshare.

Nokia needs to hit bullseye on at least two categories to remain one of the top players.

It would have been easier if they'd been serious about investing in Maemo back in 2005 and before (instead of habitually pissing off early adopters!) and repositioning Symbian properly as the Volkswagen of mobile OSes.

Just my two euro-cents.