I don't know how they expect developers to make apps for a platform that they've publicly stated is only going to have this one phone released for.
I hope I'm wrong though, I still have an irrational fondness for Nokia hardware and the N-series (I bought and regretted every Maemo device they sold).
They have finally unified the Qt-platform for Symbian and Maemo/MeeGo so it shouldn't be a problem. They also announced today that Qt will be extending to S40. Look at the new developer site http://www.developer.nokia.com/
Part of what ? They've already announced Qt won't run on WP7.
They've basically offloaded everything-but-developers to Digia [1]; and I bet Digia will have a big say in what the remaining Qt developers in Nokia will get to work on.
Qt might be part of their low-end strategy on S40, for big-numbers / low-profit emerging markets. Considering how iPhones are now immensely popular even in places like Cuba and how low-cost Android devices are getting ready to hit those markets, I bet that strategy will soon need revising as well...
Symbian will live at least to 2016. Who knows what happens during that time. They also announced that S40 will have Qt apps. They have been pretty clear about Qt's future I think. I don't know the details of the Digia deal, but I'm pretty sure Nokia can do whatever they want.
It looks likely to become MeeGo's flagship phone; they have a flagship tablet already.
I don't know about the mass-market appeal, but for my part I want an OS that actually feels like Linux under the hood, and Android doesn't. It has Linux at the core, much like OSX has BSD at the core, but it doesn't feel like Linux any more than OSX feels like BSD.
Maybe...if you could develop for it in Java and they put a lot of work into making it effortless to go from Android to their OS. At which point, you might as well just be running Android.
FFS. If your company name isn't "Apple," use Android. Availability of software is a key issue. I have no clue why anyone would want to build a completely independent and incompatible application library at this point. Buy some water pumps for Indian villages if you have that much spare money.
