I accept that. Nokia has delayed its product for sometime now. But the fact that they are still committed to open-source (with MeeGo & Qt) is worth-the-wait alone.

Look at it this way: Maemo (on a phone) is already in the market since late 2009. In these 1.5 years (by the time meego appears), they could have really polished maemo itself and released maemo6 with their next device. But they didn't do that. A strong reason should have been there. And that reason as we all know is Qt. MeeGo from the ground-up is based on Qt and which is a good decision.

I understand that Nokia is taking too much time for MeeGo to come out but this is all part-and-parcel of the game with any big company out there. Also remember, HPalm OS is yet to make its mark. So, the game is really not that over yet.

The mobile industry is here to stay. When you are preparing for a long-term war, it's always better to plan your moves ahead. May it take some extra time in the beginning, it all pays well in the end. This is where I think the other companies are some what missing on their long-term strategies.

Now, let me again go back to your post and try to address your other concerns too:
MeeGo though is not officially available on any device yet, people (including me) were able to successfully load it on their N900 and try it out.

One beauty of open source is that, people need not wait for the actual device to know what they would be getting. They can instead look at the MeeGo's work flow and get a feel of what can be expected. And please remember, we are talking Nokia here. They have enough experience in delivering phones to users and also in writing code. So, I would trust them with what they say. (I also agree that there have been few bitter promises in the past but let us hope that it doesn't happen again this time around).

So, basically what I am trying to say here is, it doesn't matter, who starts first. It's all about who survives till the last and this is at this point, I am willing to bet on the Nokia+MeeGo+Qt+Symbian horse.

The fact of the matter is we haven't seen anything yet in the mobile space. Amazing things are awaiting us in the near future and I am excited.