(I wrote this in a reply to someone's email, I wrote way more than I intended, so maybe it might make an interesting post on here)

I think one day very soon computing devices will (to most people) be just browsing machines, like televisions are video machines. The browser will be by far the most important feature, to the extent that other features will become optional for most people.

I suspect this is Nokia's core reason for making these tablets, they're betting on online services taking over completely from local software in the near future, so they've made a device that is extremely browser-centric, so browser-centric that a user might conceivably buy a tablet and never ever launch any other application. I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't mind if it just booted straight to the browser.

One thing I've noticed from doing these tutorials (tabletschool.blogspot.com) is that web apps are SO much easier to use for ordinary non-techie people: the app makers update them constantly and without you noticing, there's no installation, no setup, no syncing, you just go to the URL on any compatible browser on any device and it works. If your device is destroyed you just buy a new one and your files are all still there online, just like TV channels are still there if you replace a broken TV. Advertising and distribution become one and the same thing, if people know the app's URL then they have access to the application. The devices that use the app become far less important than the app itself, which is just as it should be.

Obviously you'd need constant coverage, and I know there's a lot of discussion of coverage issues in the USA, but here in Finland you can get a constant and pretty good internet-capable 2G, 3G or 3.5G signal practically anywhere, even in the arctic circle, even in underground shopping centres, even in fast-moving cross-country trains. If operators are very competitive and willing to invest in their networks, it's already economical to provide near-constant internet access across an entire nation including rural uninhabited areas. And of course there are more and more non-phone wireless technologies too to supplement phone networks.

Web services also fit in with the many billions Nokia spent recently on buying online service firms (Navteq alone cost $8 billion), and on creating their own online services, and on giving their smartphones a proper browser (which they had a year before the iPhone, using the same OSS browser core as the iPhone but with added flash support so Homestar Runner works).

They've been quiet about it, and not many people have noticed, but it seems that Nokia has been obsessed with the web for a long time now, and really does mean what it says about becoming an internet company.