Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Nokia N900. I got it about two weeks ago and have been really impressed with this device so far. I'm impressed both with the hardware and the software. It does have some rough edges and few missing features (nothing critical to me), but still it's the best I ever had.

But I thing that for Nokia, the N900 is a missed opportunity, and their current policy could really be their undoing. I'm sure there are lot of good and talented people at Nokia, doing their best to create great devices, but it seems like they have a serious problem in their upper management. What I see is lack of leadership, and as a result - lack of focus and lack of long term planning.

You know the story: one day, people at Nokia say that Maemo is going to be the platform for all the future high-end phones, and then few days later someone else says they are still committed to Symbian for high-end devices, and sometime later it turns out that Maemo is going to be replaced with Meego, and Meego is not going to be officially supported on the N900 etc.

I saw some previous threads discussing how Nokia's missteps affects the community, but this is not just a problem for this community. It is also a problem for Nokia itself.

People are not going to have faith in their devices without having a clear long-term commitment. As long as Nokia tries to dance in two weddings, they're going to fail in both. Personally, I think staying with Symbian for high end devices is a big mistake for Nokia. I haven't seen Symbian^3 devices yet, but based on my experience with S60 as a developer, I do not believe in the future of Symbian. Maemo/Meego, on the other hand, have the foundations needed to become a strong competitor to iPhone/Android/WebOS. In the meanwhile, Nokia is wasting time and loosing market share.
They still have the biggest market share in the lower price range, but as smartphone become cheaper, they will gradually replace the cheaper phones, and those who control the high-end market would end up controlling the low-end market as well.

What Nokia needs is a clear vision and a clear path. They need to decide what is their platform of choice, focus on that one platform, and clearly communicate their plans for the future of this platform. Otherwise, the future is not very bright for Nokia.