Wow...a partnership with AT&T would be really interesting. I wonder which side would try to throw its weight around more. DT is a bigger company but AT&T has the bigger presence in the US.

And I wonder if that would mean T-Mo could start running on 850/1900...or would this be strictly for 4G and beyond?

Depends on who you ask, since "smartphone" is not an official term anywhere. I've always used an open OS as the differentiator.

I find it interesting that the focus here is on Nseries devices. So they would migrate over to Maemo but what about Eseries? Are they going to stick with the evolved Symbian platforms (Symbian^4 or whatever it will be called then)?

Having used both Sprint and T-Mobile for a number of years, I really don't know where you come up with "1/2 the network quality." In my experience (first in DFW and now in Austin) they are pretty much equal in this regard. I do agree that Sprint runs circles around T-Mo when it comes to data but it is incorrect to say that the latter has "NO 3G."

That said, if this is what the hype has been about, I'm disappointed. Then again, I was already on T-Mobile's loyalty plan so I probably won't be partaking in anything related to Project Dark.

I'm thinking Microsoft may look at it like Sidekick OS:Windows Mobile :: Prepaid:Postpaid.

"North America's only top-five handset manufacturer"
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I know the top four is Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG (in some order)...who is fifth? And where do Palm and RIM rank?

"if we'd just been shafted like this, we're not sure we'd want to buy even more stuff from Team Magenta."
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Not sure I understand. Isn't the fault Danger and/or Microsoft's? Why would you be upset at T-Mobile?

Kershon, buddy...if nice phones and a 3G rollout were all it took for a wireless network to be profitable, Sprint would not be in the situation it is now.

AT&T and Nokia really just need to go their separate ways. I know they think staying together is best for the kids but it hurts them too.

I don't know if T-Mobile will pick this up (although I cannot imagine why it wouldn't) but one thing we should recognize is that T-Mo doesn't have the same history that AT&T does of crippling Nokia devices.