Haha, next thing we know, Nokia will be posting ads in Newsagent shop windows.

That would be an improvement on Nokias current media strategies.

I feel like this thread is three different discussions:

1. What should Nokia do to sell more/stay on top/get back on top/stay alive?

2. What will Elop do, regardless of whether it fits with my opinion of #1?

3. What kind of device do I want to buy?

Very different answers to all 3.

to go in debt, search for meego on twitter and you will see lots of the same reuters and elop leaked memo retweets. they seem to go hand in hand but, nobody knows for sure what is going on behind the curtain.
there are some things that don't end up.
1. reuters saying the first device is being cancelled, but there will be a new meego device revealed.
2. burning platform? why is a CEO talking like this in the first place?
so. if meego isn't cancelled why is the hardware?

meemo is nokia's best shot, but they have to do it right or resort to wp7? till meego is matured.

as a n900 owner I encourage Nokia to go with Meego as the last stronghold against Android, Ios and WP7, but if it isn't finnished they will likely follow another route till the job is done.
But with the rate Android is taking over the market, I think this is the last chance to introduce Meego.

Oh, and there is the MWC - Mobile World Congress - from 14 to 17 of February.

In short, no. Can't honestly say that I have--but then I have yet to see anybody holding one in the flesh, nor do I personally know anybody that has one. I tend to be the one that buys all the gadgets first.

Most of the people around me tend to wait and see what I buy before they go out and buy similarly. After I got my N800, a BUNCH of friends, family and other associates and customers ended up following my lead and we revolved around it together. After all the bitter experiences with Nokia support and the general lack of development at Nokia, I ended up buying Android and, as before, everyone seemed to follow me. So far, our experiences have been far more positive with the various Android devices on various carriers. I think it's an up-hill battle for Nokia to make it back into this circle of associations after our experiences with Nokia's faceless, corporate and insulting customer support--even in its heyday. It hasn't made the N900 attractive proposition, so it's far less likely that I'll ever see one in person.

I'm a huge fan of Nokia, and believe they make great phones - HARDWARE-wise; I used to have an N82 and similar to the N95, it had everything when it came out. However we live in a different age now - all phones are small and light anyways, what distinguishes a great phone is UI or SOFTWARE

In the tech world, there is a race against time (similar to the war between Sony's Blu Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD). With that said, between 2009 to 2011, we see one let down after another: lengthy PR 1.2/1.3 delays, Jurrassic Roller Coaster was just an embarrassing attempt compared to any other game on the market, Ovi store was a complete fail, Comes with Music was a fail, no voice-guided navigation on N900 - even though it was promised on every Nokia...

As a corporation, you can see Nokia failing at every attempt to mimic Apple but the bar is already too high to reach. With that said I still think Google will be the victor with Android, as a global commercial superpower and its ability to take over the world that even the US government would call mercy on.

As of late, Nokia has diverted too long from developing a stable OS and has worried too much on the NUMBER of sales of lower end models to Asia and Europe to sustain revenue. I'm afraid efforts from Nokia to gain solid market share for high end smartphones and MeeGo is too little, too late as iOS and Android have already paved ground to well established software developing attraction. I hate blackberries but at least they have BBM to distinguish themselves. Nokia has nothing to distinguish. Nokia is a joke in the North America market.

I forecast a huge disappointment from Nokia at the MWC. I would be surprised if there are any surprises from them.

I foresee a surprise from Nokia within a week. I just do not see it as a positive event.

Despite the fact that I'm cynical on Maemo and I'm pessimistic about MeeGo, I would disagree on your assertions. I believe they can easily manage to turn this around without resorting to using Android (even if I am pleased with it) and DEFINITELY should avoid the already-doomed Windows Phone 7. Combining a faltering hardware maker with a failing platform isn't a winning formula. I think Nokia could easily turn this all around if they treated their own platforms with the respect they deserved and listened to their customers and their engineers--the people who reside closer to the design and usage. They need to promote their platform better and provide some support contracts for local support centers and slap their name on some sponsored support centers in every region they sell a product. A physical presence means a LOT to the average consumer and it means EVERYTHING to a business customer.

Let's see if Nokia manages to do ANY of that instead of merging with Windows Phone 7 and combining two bad flavors that go worse together, to paraphrase Reese's(r) Peanut Butter Cups(tm). ($$)

Does this mean Nokia still haven't done their Meego UX yet? No wonder they never managed to get the N9 released last year.