Simon;
A lot of people who are posting here have purchased and received one. A lot of people are posting in the last couple days saying that they've been notified that their units have shipped, too, so it simply isn't accurate to say that "... you can't actually buy one!".

RealNitro has been using his 770 to use the Open Office software and the 770 has built-in Bluetooth to connect to a whole universe of things like keyboards, mice, GPS devices, printers, Earpieces, Cameras, other 770's etc., so it's beyond me how you can claim that the hardware is a little lacking "(memory, processor speed, expansion, etc". Is your comment based on your own experience or are you simply saying that if the 770's specs were all doubled then you'd be happy?

I read a lot of 770 blogs and they are filled with people who are happy with their 770's, so I have no problem with Nokia's performance in the 2 weeks since they announced that the product is being shipped. With the first firmware update I am reading that a lot of the performance issues have been solved. It may be that you just aren't reading the news that I'm reading. That would be understandable. I don't think that you or I have any control over what Nokia has ever done or will ever do. What we each have total control over, though, is how we individually react to what Nokia does or doesn't do. I simply choose to ignore the melodrama, to be patient and ignore the negative because that's what works for me.

I'm really not too concerend with the 770 failing as a device. Nokia's Institute of Technology is really good with software development. Mauricio Lin, Edjard Mota, and Ilias Biris are smooth to the core. I have read of their work on dealing with Memory Management on swapless devices(770). The OOM or out-of-memory killer is not usually invoked on desktop and server computers, because those environments contain sufficient resident memory and swap space, making the OOM condition a rare event. Although the 770 has little main memory and no swap space. So they have set the LMW Low Memory Watermark module in the kernel at an optimum setting. The LMW is based on the Linux Security Module(LSM Framework) if any of you care to learn more. I can't wait to get a 770 so I can personally play with the MAT to tune the memory consumption Parameters, maybe some moding and hacking would make this thing Rox. With an Optimal Mat value the memory allocation refusal threshold, should be such as to avoid system slowness and kernel OOM killer execution and leave us with a underpowered proccesor. Regardless of how we stand on Nokia this device is going to get taken apart and finely placed into a category leaving it in its own class. I will never cancel my order and I didn't mean to be mean to Nokia they have an excellent team of Software engineers who have already been tuning the OOM for this device. With firmware updates, and software updates this device will be very solid, even though its their first product of this type.

Gosh, aren't we loosing patience here? Try to buy a car, a exclusive hifi set or whatever. They always come at the cost of waiting. I wanted to buy a Qtek 9100 back in september, well, they were ready to deliver in november. All that happens all the time for items that are not mainstream. See it as a proof of originality and uniquess. Most people don't even know they can order one. Sooner or later it, or its successor, will hit the malls, and there you'll have it, over the counter. But by that time, it is nothing special with it, copies are made and new versions are the ones to wait for.

//Johan

Just for laughs, I called Nokia for the latest "estimate" on my order. I got a date I had never heard before. The rep said it "won't be released until January 6th".

Nice to see that they're still being consistent about one thing - inconsistency.

Jeff

It seems to be typical for Nokias high-end/niche products to have a slow ramp-up. Nokia wants to avoid having a warehouses full of expensive hardware not selling.

It usually works well, but if a product gets much more orders than expected, or there is lots of people who want the device as soon as the device gets to market, the backlogs can get quite long. As the component manufacturers have committed to a certain production rate, it might to hard to speed the ramp-up process.

For most users it does not matter (they get the products via operators anyway, and operators bring their own delays to getting new products to sale), but for early adopters and fans it would be great service to make an initial round of the devices big enough to satisfy all the pre-orders at once, instead of manufacturing a minimal round...

We need a poll to see how many people actually have them. I don't know what is considered a lot to be but I don't think there are really that many people with them. Certainly there are very few in the US. More in Europe of course. Those of us in the rest of the world need to jump through hoops to even get one. It is good that people like RealNitro you mention who do have them post lots of information about them and report on their findings and are trying interesting things. But that is the nature of the device. It's for hackers. The early adapters are going to be enthuastic and try things. I wish I was one of them. I would love to report my findings based on real experience but as I said I can't buy one. That's a fact.

And the hardware is lacking. I am not saying it isn't usable but most reviews I have read mention the lack of storage space and sometimes sluggish performance especially when opening multiple apps. Yes, I have also read that the latest firmware does address this somewhat and that's good. I bet pretty much everyone who has one immediately buys a bigger memory card for it. More memory is an obvious and probably easy thing Nokia could do.

And if you don't have a problem with Nokia's performance then good for you. You're obviously a lot more forgiving than I am. Personally I think they really messed up. A friend of mine mentioned it was like when we both worked for a well know, big chip manufacturer. We also worked on non core products and often we had to do releases we (as engineers) knew weren't ready because if we missed a certain date we (and more importantly management) wouldn't get our bonuses. You only have to send one out the door to say you've shipped. My cynical nature naturally leads me to wonder is there isn't something like that happening here.

I don’t think I am being overly negative. I am not saying I think the product is crap and no one should buy one. I am still wanting to buy one and find out for myself. I think it will be great to play with and it could be the forerunner of a new class of devices. I am certainly disappointed that I can’t get one and at the way Nokia have handled their release and the lack of feedback to potential customers on the shipping delays. Remember that saying the customer is always right? Well, if we the customers don’t tell Nokia we are disappointed at the way they handled the release then how will they know they should try to handle them better in the future? Things like not announcing a shipping date until you have sufficient units to ship seems like a pretty obvious thing to me. I don't mind waiting but when they say it is available now then say 'no, sorry wait a few weeks". Then "oh no, wait a month". Then "no, wait until the start of next year". And it is all said unofficially then I consider they are being somewhat impolite!

It isn't designed as a replacement for a desktop PC. tiggerboy received his unit today and this is all he had to say to us all. Mine arrived and its everything I wanted it to be!!

And I'm not trying to make anyone feel uncomfortable, either, except the one fellow who kept telling us how glad he was that he had cancelled his order. It's unusual for any company rolling out a new product to have web sites like this filled with such anticipation. I'll apologize to anyone if I've made them feel that it's inappropriate to express their frustrations over delayed shipments, but I don't think I've done that. Still, I don't want anyone to regard me as a pompous old fart, cuz I'm not THAT old.

Nah, no worries mate. We're just having a discussion. No pompus old farts here I am looking forward to getting one and playing with it.

I know it's not a PC replacement of course. I just think it is underpowerded memory wise. Still, as long as you can plug in more memory I am sure I'll cope. It just seems a tiny amount when you compare to other devices about these days. Still if it keeps the cost down then leaving it to the user to decide if they want to spend money on extra storage is a good thing.

Even converting from US to NZ$ the thing is a bargain I think. Especially with that extra $50 off someone came up with! I hope we still get that when they ship the US ones.

Remote your cool with everyone IMHO and I read your posts and think about what your saying, and I don't think this forum will be exiled once our 770's arrive. We will be helping each other and this community everyday. I imagine we have software engineers, electrical engineers, network administrators, mathematicians, and a plethora of various other professionals among us. Just think of the advancements that will be made between us all. If nothing else we're an investement for Nokia to have for their company!

I'm generally happy with my device, but as it is marketed as an internet tablet, it's a bit appalling that device reports memory low error messages in some graphics heavy web pages, (no other apps running except browser) even with only one or two browser windows opened. This happens also with latest firmware, although upgrade was a massive improment in usability. So IMHO, it lacks memory, at least with present browser.