The last mobile phone I paid for out of my own pocket was a Black Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N82. It cost me $593, and I ordered it on Apr 12, 2008. I already had the brown version of the device, thanks to Nokia’s Marketing Department it was free, but vanity got the best of me; I knew I had to have the Black N82 from the very moment I saw it. Since then I’ve only had one other phone, the Nokia E71. That too was provided gratis by Nokia, but this time it given to me by Human Resources. It was my work phone during my year and a half with the company, and it stayed with me even after I left. Before the E71, and the N82, there was the N95, which was a gift, the E61i, yet another gift, and finally the E61, which was my first Symbian device. I ordered that one on November 5, 2006 for $412.30.

I’ve only been a Symbian user for 3 years and 4 months, before that I had a string of Nokia devices that ran S40, and lately I’ve been dissatisfied with not only Symbian, but Nokia as well.

The mobile phone industry,…