Wow it's been a while since I've been here. Things look different since OS2008 came out, eh? Anyway, the reason I came back here was partly frustration, so apologies if this sounds like venting.

Watching the Windows Phone 7 launch today at MIX10, I was struck by how quickly other companies have learnt from the success of the Apple in the content arena - and what Nokia hasn't to my dismay. I watched as Microsoft showed off a nifty streaming Netflix app, games from a Tier 1 developer, apps from Pandora, Sling and others. Microsoft's brought its own content network for audio and video (Zune) and recruited third party developers aggressively. Google brought the Amazon MP3 store, showed off games from a dozen Tier 1 developers and productivity apps from just as many. Ditto Palm - and Palm brought cash to the table, offering rewards to its top developers just to develop apps people would use. Nokia? Not so much.

I love my Abiword, and I can't stop playing Angry Birds and Frozen Bubble and I use Salling's excellent Media Sync to have my N900 grab my iTunes play lists. But my US N900 teases me with an Amazon widget which doesn't allow me to download from the Amazon MP3 store*. I can download a dozen codecs, but I can't watch buy an episode of House to watch on the go. And the "store" (whether you look at it as just Ovi, or the repositories, or both, as I do) is so basic that I look kindly at the 2005-era software store on my Windows Mobile 2003-powered HP6315.

So: where is the content? In the US at any rate, Ovi is a joke - thanks for the wallpapers, Nokia! Where are the incentives for great developers to come? Free and open source is a huge incentive, but it isn't a prerequisite for a great developer to come.

So, please, Nokia - learn from the news conferences for the iPhone launch, the WebOS launch, the Android launch, and now, the Windows Phone 7 launch: keep building amazing devices, but bring amazing content - if you can, bring games, bring apps, bring movies, bring TV shows; but at the very least, bring a music store! But the next device needs to have content.

*: Yes, I know I could open a browser, go to amazonmp3.com and download it. But the very least I expect from a content partner is a shortcut to said partner, yes? Also, no way to download albums.