But key points perhaps unfairly overlooked
A former Nokia employee has told the New York Times that the company was working on an internet-ready touchscreen phone prototype way back in 2004, but decided to abandon the project due to prohibitive production costs.
The article seeks to paint a picture that Nokia passed up opportunities to innovate in the mid-noughties, only to see others pick up the various dropped balls, run with them and put the Finnish company in the somewhat uncomfortable position it finds itself in today.
In addition to the touchscreen concept, another ex-employee says Nokia also rejected designs for an online app store and a 3D user interface.
Such criticism is slightly disingenuous, however. In 2002/03 the company was pioneering the field of broadcast mobile TV and doing so using the 7700 and 7710 touchscreen smartphones (both of which had full web browsers).
It also arguably got the app store ball rolling with its various on-device portals, such as Download!.
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To a certain extent everyone got caught out by the impact of iPhone and the touchscreen/app store revolution - Motorola and not so long ago Sony Ericsson could testify to that.
Nokia no doubt has a huge task on its hands to claw back its position in the smartphone segment and will be looking to new CEO Stephen Elop to work some magic. And quickly.
