Why should meego be a dead cow in the grass?

iOS was a unborn child several years ago. At the beginning attracting only the hardcore Apple fanboys... and after they have bought it and showed it to their friends and family the userbase grew.

MeeGo / Maemo / WebOS is mostly attracting Linux freaks and fanboys.

But, are there today more Linux users, interesed in buying a Mobile device, than Apple users 4 years ago? I would say yes.

I see there a huge market in the future. But of course, not for my mother or my 56 year old neighbor. But Series40 is still at the stores, or not?

The people, tastes and use cases are quite different. And so the devices have to. I don't want WP7 and also Android. And I would prefer to use Symbian again over iOS. But I wouldn't pay more than 150€ for a Symbian Phone... 800€ for a Maemo like MeeGo Device and I would still ask where to buy?

Owwww...I'm 58. But not senile.

You're not my Neighbor! I would know if you're my 56 year old neighbor because he doesn't own a computer and has his first mobile since December.

And not everyone over 55 is senile. Got my point?
If we are all similar WP7, iOS, Symbian or Android would have 100% marketshare and there wouldn't be any need for a different system.

Oh dear, I do apologize. It seems I didn't make it sufficiently clear that I'm not taking this thread seriously. Sorry!

I agree with Ahonen: The memo is a hoax.

Well hoax or not, by this time tomorrow we'll all know if our next Nokia will be running with Windows (can't believe I just wrote that) on it. (I'm physically ill). Maybes, perhaps, what ifs, how abouts, and I thinks will all be over (thank the Lord) and we will know what Captain Elop has up his expensive sleeve. Perhaps it is all just smoke and mirrors so he can surprise us when he says, "Yes! MeeGo is scrapped! From today, it will be known as MeeLop!"

It's what he aaaalways wanted aaaaall along.

Here is what I see would be happening at the announcements.
1. MeeGo intact. As per plan.
2. HP joins MeeGo. Qt to support WebOS too in the near future.
3. Talks about Alien Dalvik & Qt in the context of Android.
4. Collaboration/Partnership with Microsoft on key services. Gaming could be one of them.
5. Memo mis-quoted. That was just meant to be motivating the employees.

Now, anything other than that, I would be interested/hoping to see Elop getting fired right away, seriously. Now that WebOS 3.0 is also based on MeeGo, who else does Nokia fear to now? Qt is getting stronger day-by-day and it would be ultimate suicide to leave Qt and join WP7 even as a stop-gap arrangement!

So, in summary:
Nokia + Qt = MeeGo, Symbian^3/4, WebOS, Android (currently via Alien Dalvik), Linux, Windows, Mac
Nokia + WP7 = SUICIDE

Edit: In the mean time, you can start reading this article posted yesterday - Getting Started with MeeGo [linux.com]

Apparently the "Press Material" will be available at 7:30am. The event starts 2.5 hours later.

Pre-game. Shame this isn't a global TV event!! ha ha We could start with stories of Nokia's early beginnings making rubber boots (narrated by Michael Gambon) and ending with Elop's announcements, followed by cheerleaders and fireworks and an unveiling of a huge 12ft high neon sign that says "MEEGO"