The big change in the industry is that Apple was able to figure out how to make a compelling device that isn't about checkboxes per se, at least not just in the device. Yes, features are important but it is not as important as usability and a strong third-party ecosystem. I'm not an Apple historian, but when the iPhone released it was for posers who wanted to be cool. When the App Store blew up and third-parties flocked to build aps for the iPhone it became more than something just cool to have. If you could count an app as another checkbox, how many more does Apple have versus Google or even Nokia.

The MOST? Maturity in any industry means that people move away from specs. Do people really care what CPU is in their netbook? No because most just want to do word documents, watch a few videos and surf the web. The PC market evolved / matured to the point where its about being productive and useful rather than whether or not you have the right CPU. The same thing is happening to smartphones.

A joke? See even you see it and you don't want to give Apple credit for making a great device. The N97 has more features than most iPhones but it sucks because its not about checkboxes.

Nokia doesn't have 10 years to get it right. If they can lean out their portfolio by 1/3 I think they will do ok. I hope they see that they can still maintain healthy numbers without the deluge of different models and eventually reduce their current portfolio by 1/2 and even then they will still make more models of phones than just about anyone else.