I know everyone here loves the openness of their phone and they hate the idea of an M$ mobile; however, the Nokia, M$ partnership is basic game theory. The object of the game is to create the most popular mobile devices. Popularity is measured in sales. Thus, two of the weaker players decide that they need to join forces to survive in order to have a chance against the leaders of the game, Google/(their handset makers) and Apple. Hopefully, the two biggest players fight it out and while they are competing, the smaller guys can become competitive. You can't fault Nokia for this strategy at all.

Now some of you Android lovers will make the case that Google is willing to partner with Nokia. That is very true. So why doesn't a little guy partner with Google and join the lead. The problem with that is you have changed your game a bit and now you are partners and enemies with all of the other Android players, so you are only going to get a piece of the Android pie. If you become the dominant Android handset, you help yourself and hurt yourself at the same time, because one of the basic ideas behind Android is that the consumer has choice. If your competing partners become irrelevant Android has a chance to become irrelevant.

It should be obvious to see that if Nokia joins Android, the game gets tricky. However, with the M$ partnership if success comes there is no worry about balancing your success. Both M$ and Nokia may remain egotistical; whereas with Google, Nokia has to be more of a team player.

In the end, it seems like it comes down to this. Apple controls the software and hardware for their products. RIM is like Apple; however, they are dying. If those companies remain competitive, they will make the most money of any player in this game. Google wants to control the core software and provide interoperability which is good for the consumer, but they are reaping almost all of the software benefits. The Google handset makers are fighting for a piece of the Android handset maker pie. If Android practically becomes the only mobile OS option, that isn't a bad deal at all. Finally, you have the M$ and Nokia partnership that is perfect, because when one benefits the other benefits. As long as Nokia is pretty much the only M$ partner that isn't a bad deal and it becomes a lower variance

Give Nokia a break; their CEO made a strong play in this game. Honestly, it would take a lot of luck, a ramp up in resources, and hard work in order for Maemo/Meego to have a chance. Apple and/or Android would have to seriously mess up. There could be quite a bit of reward, but there is also a lot of variance.

I believe that we will be lucky to see the N950. After that we will be extremely lucky to see another phone as open as the N900. We can only hope that Nokia keeps serving our niche market. Nobody likes a whiner, so stop bashing them and start asking nicely and maybe we will get what we want.