Now I'm a Nokian, but now I'll try to speak here as me the consumer, not as me the company representative: I wouldn't buy a device if I wouldn't be satisfied with the things the device offers me out of the box. And as a consumer I also know that whatever gizmo I will buy, new and better ones will surely come.

To compare, I bought the Nikon D300 camera about 8 months ago. Now there is the D90 and D700 and others, giving better value and new features. I'm still happy with my D300, it takes great pictures. I've also bought a lot of stuff which got outdated almost instantly. Sony MiniDiscs got replaced by the iPod quickly, they were still good for a few things.

I didn't buy the 770 or the N800 because for me it wasn't yet the device I would have wanted for myself. (Hey well yes, we got those devices of course anyway.) I didn't recommend it to my friends either. We're - and I'm - working hard so that one day this will be different. I wouldn't continue working here if I didn't see this day coming. I really hope people see new products, both in terms of hardware and software, as positive things, signs that there are progress and better things coming.

I at least measure success in this case by popularity. No company has infinite resources. If I would be in charge - and I'm not - I would much rather invest and focus the efforts on getting great hardware and great software out. The more good software and solutions there is for a given platform, the more good backwards compatibility is needed. But if there is a choice between working for backwards compatibility for HW and SW that is not as good as it can be, or working for the future, for stuff which allows building great solutions and user experiences, I as a designer would choose the latter.

No compatibility is free, this is true for the entire device SW stack, and even for the UI layer. Something as basic as moving towards touch usability makes full backwards compatibility really hard, and having it would fragment the device UI. After we reach something really great then I would be much more worried about compatibility than what I am right now.

I gotta say, when I bought my N800 I had no expectations of ongoing upgrades.

The updates that I have received were a pleasant and unexpected bonus. Thanks Nokia!

The problem with "Fixed in Fremantle" isn't so much that Nokia won't be fixing it for Diablo, it's that the fix isn't visible. In time that won't be a problem, but for now it's a taunt.

ragnar, you're saying the same sort of things I've said before on this subject, but I still think the transitions could be managed MUCH better.

In my case, it was days, not weeks. I actually had to send my first tablet back to the retailer that sold it to me, the box unopened, because they couldn't price match the prices online shortly after I purchased. It was $80 cheaper to pay the shipping fee back to the retailer and buy elsewhere.

Of course, the retailer that just couldn't price match was selling it for the same price two weeks later, too.

Yes, I agree with this.

Sounds like the stock market to me

I searched for the cheapest deal I could find, on eBay. Saved me between 75 and 100 EUR over the cheapest _new_ deals.

(Then again, maybe my GPS chip is b0rked... )

I have a 770 I ordered Nov. 14, 2005, as soon as I was aware it was available for order. I had read about it several months earlier and was eagerly awaiting it.

I'm still waiting for the next version with a hard case.

When I bought my N800, I expected a working email client with imap support. What I've had to use is beta-quality software that has erratic behaviour (when will it actually delete a message? Who knows?) and has apparently no new software fixes scheduled for it, if this fixed-in-fremantle stuff is true.

I've lived with the osso-email then modest client, barely, but if you expect me to trust buying a new device and a substantial os redesign to be anywhere stable for the first year, I'll pass. I cannot justify living with the quality of the email software, and there is no good replacement that integrates into the desktop natively.

Unless some basic fixes are brought to Diablo to extend the useful life of the device until the kinks are worked out of the N900, I'll just get an N71 cell or something and be done with tablets (and take my chances with the native client or symbian marketplace.)

I will not say what details you can or cannot expect, but don't write off future Diable updates. Keep in mind the N810 WE is new and you can expect its lifecycle will see some updates.

Also I am trying to remain hopeful that the developer community will come through in some areas, too. I worry about loss of momentum though. I think it was a big mistake on the program's part not to produce an updated N800 derivative... that could have filled a gap.

That reminds me, are N810 WE owners able to flash their devices yet? Or are they still SOL if they bork things up?