Yes I think he does believe that, and he may or may not be right. But I think he would say that, even if not, a N800 with ITOS2007 will still be quite usable in 2009. He's probably right. It's probably not obsolete until widespread adoption of 802.11n or WiMax, or non-backward compatible advancement of flash memory cards, or some other hardware-related tech. It's open in the sense that there's nothing to stop anyone from continuing to develop software apps for it in the future.

btw, most laptops are traded-in or considered obsolete after an average of about 3 yrs or so. they definitely see a windows upgrade at some point, for example. frequently the wear and tear makes them uneconomical to repair. it will be interesting to see well the N770 and N800 hold up over time in terms of repairs and value.