Sadly it looks like Nokia's days as an innovator are over. Leaks today suggest MeeGo won't be a future disruption, instead a mere current disruption until mid-2012 when they ditch it.

Apple has 'created' a market for the iPad, but Nokia had already carved out it's own niche with it's range of tablets and phone that reached out to the real geek community. As the OS movement grows and matures, they would've been well-placed to reap the dividends with a mature release of products ie an n900 replacement phone and maybe a tablet alongside too - obviously these would have to run maemo, but so what, it's nearly there right now.

It's almost funny. Yesterday there was an article in The Guardian about Sony's tardy entrance into the tablet market. The article goes on to discuss the parallels with Sony's response to the iPod. Sony the great pioneer that gave the world the Walkman couldn't create an iPod killer that Apple feared because it no longer had the software expertise having already 'caved in to using Microsoft's Windows for its PCs - seeing in them the volume it wanted, and not realising that PC manufacturing would be a cut-throat pit where Sony's greatest strengths, industrial design and innovation, would count for nothing.'

See where I'm going? Here we have a company that produces great hardware (n900 micro-usb port aside), which did produce great software, give it all up.

At least before they did they helped to conceive the beautiful MeeGo idea. Hopefully there is enough wind in it's sails to allow other manufacturers to jump aboard and provide us with what we want.