Nokia's decision to back the Symbian operating system with its new N8 smartphone, which we can expect to see in Q3, could prove more important that you'd have thought initially. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, it's the first phone based on the system since the code went open. This puts it in a different category to the iPhone, Blackberry and Google's Nexus One. The market will decide whether this actually matters very much.
Second, it's a substantial phone company making this statement. This isn't a little business like some of the competition saying it's going to try to make a splash by being different, nor is it Palm being a maverick and saying it's going to stick with its own proprietary stuff - it's Nokia. They are not playing. They are serious.
The new status of Symbian could have been a time when the big guns decided to look at it again, maybe move away. They have not done so.
With Nokia's marketing forces behind it this could well be the Blackberry and iPhone competitor the market has been expecting since...well, since the rather lacklustre Nexus One launch in January.