I agree with the general tone here, apart from the post-edited excitement for ms-WiPho7 for which I can see no reason to exist at all.

Symbian was cut down to size (mindsharewise) for being too many after-thought Lego GUI blocks on top of an already stretched slightly hairy ball of OS originally meant for an old-school UI.

A bit like the French Minitel information network vs graphical and open internet with GUI browsers.

Except that I can see ever-improving old-school fully buttoned plainjane phones being around for a looong time. Mostly in the low-end but also somewhere in mid-range if Nokia are smart about it.

So what if the old-school OS/UI isn't the bee's knees as it was a decade ago. Keep it nimble and efficient, keep improving it around the edges, use it for ultra-simple phones for the kids and the elderly and the masses who aren't interested in "applet shops". (too bad that Nokia bet on outsourcing manufacturing while believing that OVI shopping portal would be their money-spinner)

Just don't add a whole mountain of additional hairball on it but keep it modular and fit for specific function(s). Ultra slim, ultra long-life, outdoor or granny-readable, location- and contact-aware, near-area direct peer-to-peer walkie-talkie mode (even video?), radio device for non-cellular tablets and notebooks etc. etc.

There's still amazing amount of value in the non-high-end market for both the users and the device manufacturers, but it's just not the place where the real cutting-edge excitement is. I also wonder if Symbian + QT restructuring will find a large enough place in the market or whether it will be both too heavy and too light-weight at the same time.

I also don't get why Nokia refused to use stock Android even as a stop-gap offering. It's not like they will be the sole controllers of Meego either. Hangover of OVI strategy? Maybe due to outsourcing their hardware has also ceased to be state-of-the-art and generally late to market wrt. latest components.

In short, Nokia's future is still up in the air and depends on 1) the low- and mid-range with Symbian finding their new bearings, 2) Meego kicking *** and reaching critical mass of must-have apps and value-adding functions as soon as they hit the ground and 3) Nokia somehow coming up with absolute kick-*** flagship Meego devices while also having attractive mid-range and affordable Meego devices to keep cheapo dime-in-a-dozen Android handsets from grabbing the mass volume marketshare.

Nokia needs to hit bullseye on at least two categories to remain one of the top players.

It would have been easier if they'd been serious about investing in Maemo back in 2005 and before (instead of habitually pissing off early adopters!) and repositioning Symbian properly as the Volkswagen of mobile OSes.

Just my two euro-cents.

You, of course, already know that the "they" in the above were two different sets of people; with the former being largely Reggie and the second being Nokia's corporate strategy unit? (If you accept the premise of "getting rid of Maemo")

In Anssi Vanjoki's article "The fightback starts now" he wrote this:

That single sentence tells me that Nokia has completely lost the plot. If Nokia cannot see that iPhone and Android represent the computing space, then Nokia is done for.

I must say I was impressed with the interest and expectations for MeeGo here at KDE's Akademy 2010. KDE folks are really certain of its potential.

But back to the original topic-- some are calling the blogger defections childish and while there may be some petulance in these reactions, I'm looking at the situation from a step or two back. Regardless of the individual motives or maturities behind them, this sort of attention-getting ploy is unfortunately often necessary to get the attention of corporate suits who can actually react.

God knows our *****ing here hasn't had the desired effect...

The way Nokia behaved as to n900 (buggy software not uptated for months, meego not available for n900 because they want us to buy new hardware, etc.) made me take a decision: I am really enjoying my n900 and I I hope to use it as long as possible, but my next phone will not be a Nokia phone. Never mind if Nokia will win the fight against Apple and Android (but I don't think so), my next phone will not be Nokia just by principle.

This can mean two different things :

1) Nokia is so confident in its next Meego product that it considers it will redefine the computing space.
2) Nokia has totally lost the plot, and has no idea of the whole features the competitors already offer.

I strongly hope they mean the 1), otherwise their fall will be high.

I disagree completely. To me, it says they DO get it That they realize Sybian, Android and the iPhone are limited OS intended for and suited to smartphones or, at most, limited-capability tablets.

MeeGo is intended to be more complete, flexible and capable, ready for whatever technology throws at it in the future. I see some parallels to the limited intention and capabiitiy of DOS vs the nearly unlimited possibilites of UNIX.

IOW MeeGo is an attempt to get ahead, not just catch up.

imo Nokia sees that Android and iPhone represent the computing space.
Only users still in the "look honey, what my phone can do" -phase do not realise it yet and keep accepting closed operating systems with privacy breaches beyond imagination.
They walk around with mobile computers accepting the OS maker to access their device remotely, log their location and web whereabouts, accept closed OSes and sell their solls for a 13 per dozen funny app...
Once they wake up they might have look at a more serious Maemo / Meego.

Symbian = cheap and smart enough phone that lasts on battery and is business feature rich.

Meego / Maemo = mobile computing (done correctly)

The smartphone is dead, long live the pocket computer.

Maybe unix is the best of the best but the market said microsoft windows.

its a symbian site, not a nokia site, also they aren't complaining about maemo, only about symbian, and yeah who doesn't know, that symbian is for noobs and not that free?!

maemo is free, and its open source. so please, site-owner just get a n900 and be happy