The N770-900 series was even better in some regards. The hardware keyboard found in some models, and the stock Linux userland offered a fantastic experience.
They had a burning ship. But instead of going into their own newly-built submarine, they trust floats full of money handed out by Microsoft.
F Im furios everytime this topic is mentioned
It really was an unbelievable move. I've heard from former Nokia employees that part of the reason for this nutty strategy, was internal division inside the company. The vast majority of Nokia supported going forward with their main OS (Symbian), despite very promising results on Meego (despite having a tiny team compared with Symbian). I guess Intel and others had already dropped out of the partnership as well, they were also invested in this (Moblin), but did not invest further in it.
By choosing something nobody really liked inside Nokia (Windows Phone), at least they did not choose something half the company really hated.
I'd watch it.
(Given the pivotal importance of mobile in our world, the title would not be an understatement).
There's - also - something to be said about giving people an idea of the "right" thing to yearn for - lust for an endless sea of possibilities, not a drumbeat - as de Saint-Exupéry would put it.-
I was a student in Scandinavia and my CS department got gifted a few hundred N800 so that students could hack and develop applications. We coded some cool mesh networking tools, and a text chat on top. It felt so futuristic.
In parallel, I brought an iPhone 1 from the US and it never felt like a superior device. I recall sitting in a SAS plane in Spring 2007, whose departure was delayed for 1 hour due to technical reasons, and hostesses came to my seat as they were blown away by that little device I was watching some videos on. I also showed them my iPhone, and they were not nearly as impressed.
Then, suddenly, before the N9 release they totally dropped the ball. Still, that device won some accolades in the press.