I posted this in another thread by mistake, it's been a confusing day so far. All the news is still sinking in, but at the moment I don't know who i feel more sorry for.

Is it the developers who were training up for MeeGo? Is it the Intel reps getting ready to show off their MeeGo wares at the MWC booths, after their major partner just dismissed it as a hobbyist platform and pretty insignifgant for the next few years. Is it the smaller companies like Neofonie who put their faith and limited resources in MeeGo by bringing us the first real commercial tablet WeTab. Is it the MeeGo bloggers who put their own money into travelling to MWC hoping to report some good news? Is it the volunteer MeeGO ambassadors, running their local groups all over the world? Job losses in Finland.. ok I could go on and on..

And it's not just Maemo/MeeGo, what about the E7 - now we know why the release was hastily brought forward a few days before this announcement. A great little phone undermined before it's even started selling. I thought that kind of nonsense would be gone under Elop.

Whatever the future, I don't regret owning a N900 and if MeeGo brings more of the same then I'll still be onboard for MeeGo.

... you are a bit late... you have been left holding the bag...

2 questions. i wonder what Apple and Google are thinking after seeing this announcement.

maybe nothing because they don't see this as a threat ?? or changing their strategy a bit??

positioning themselves to take over the market? If only they had a low/mid range phone solution.

lol.. It seems Nokia underestimated the performance and the boost iPhone and android phone got. From Symbia to Maemo to meego and now to windows... I just hope they learn from this experience and stay with or ahead of mobile technology next time.

out of desperation, i sent an email to stephen.elop@nokia.com (just a wild guess on the email address) requesting the above.

the email hasn't bounced yet (been about 10minutes). let's see if i can solicit a favourable reply. anyone else care to try?

LOL so they partnered with the company which is the most experienced at missing the mobile market

Android is allready in mid-range. Flop allready said that it will take two years to transition into Microkia. With current speed, Android only needs maybe 6 months to take over mid-range completly. Especially since Symbian sales will tank after todays annoucement.

Android is Google tech tht happens to use the linux kernel and that's it.

All the other stuff you expect from Linux distros and GPL/GNU/Open-source software just does not exist on android.

As a result porting existing linux-based software is impossible without the other supporting bits like the glibc libraries and the xorg libraries.

However, a chroot version of ubuntu is in the pipline for android - similar to easy debian which will give you more options.
(This is the bit I'm waiting for when I get a new device. Also bluetooth keyboards and mice or not supported in android)

you have no idea how FRUSTRATING it was trying to tell Redmond how they were missing this boat YEARS ago. the product group was adamant that "customers were not complaining".

what were they smoking? there is a joke internally @ microsoft that if you want to make a successful new business, join the competition first.