I'd only get it if it has a hardware keyboard, otherwise the Samsung Galaxy S2 it is. However much I love Nokia's hardware, the software just has not had the support of Android or iOs. I'm not really missing any software other than google maps, but as I will like to do some stock trading from my phone I really need to be able to install the trading company's applications and as of now only availablet o Android or iPhone! I'm not sure why RIM can put an android emulator on their tablet, but that didn't occur to Nokia. They could have just bought Dalvik, thrown it onto their phones and that's the eco system taken care of while they sort out their own. Perhaps there are some licenses they could not agree with Google, but surely google should have been happy with Android (advertising) running on Nokia phones, bringing in tons of cash for them. Now that the deal with MS has gone through, no chance we'll see an Android emulator on a Nokia phone.

I would even pay a lot of money for Dalvik if it worked as well as they say. I'd be willing to spend £1000 on the phone and Davlik, seriously!

However, I'm coming to the stage where work is getting busy and I don't have the time to tinker with my phone just to get it to do the simple things. Google has agreed with phone manufacturers that they will support phones for 18months. That's 3 interations of Android. Taking into account the pace that Android is developing, I feel it is the best bet right now.

Why would they design a beautiful touchscreen phone with qwerty keyboard, made of aluminium? The design costs and materials are way too expensive to be given only to developers.

This is a developer device. http://e2e.ti.com/videos/m/applicati...ic/121749.aspx

But think about all the R&D costs that went into this device... it wouldn't make much sense not to mass produce, sell and gain at least a bit of profit out of it. That is unless it's really 1 year old hardware inside, which would be a shame for Nokia to call their new "beast" when compared to the other manufacturer's specs, so they would just pass it out as a developers unit.

I don't think so though and even if the hardware won't be a new landmark, I guess it'll be pleasing enough and in combination of all aspects (OS[!], performance, build quality, design,...) it will probably be again the best you can get at that time.

My thought : things that it's sure is that the N900 was delivered to developpers one month before public release, and it has not changed for us.
Many devs here have give up their maemo5 app support, because of the meego system coming (that what they said for most of them !)
A qwerty device and a candybar device with all the same built-in would be a VERY subtil idea for the first harmattan/maemo6/meego device launch !

Well the reason would very likely be exactly what you said above if all these rumors are true.
Nokia has spent so much time to it that they still give it to devs before lankku comes out. There's certainly lots of devices inside Nokia that we never see.

I'll just hope that if RM-680 is for devs only they already show lankku at MC or give some kind of timeline.... it's not like some of us haven't waited already.

Surely many important things we do not know yet, because of the secret defense XD
Let's hope good surprises will be soon announced !
Meego steamroller is just going to wake up soon lol.

But would it make sense to send the device over to the FCC just to dump it as a developer device? Doesn't make much sense to me. Also why make a teaser if practically nobody will be able to get this device?

IF they are planning to hand them out to Devs at the MeeGo conference on US soil then getting FCC clearance makes sense.

Yes, because this device has radio transmitters/receivers and therefore has to be approved by FCC if it is to be used in public. No matter if it only gets handed out to a few hundred developers...

If they are giving it to lets say +500 people does it need to go trough FCC?
Teaser was not officially from Nokia. Like said previously dates on the teaser hint somewhere(example social app talking about NYC getting Super Bowl) to May 2010. First MeeGo device was supposed to be out Q4 2010, that being more than likely the RM-680.