With Nokia's dedication to Maemo and the recent Trolltech acquisition, it's no secret that Espoo has its eyes firmly locked on the Linux prize -- but outside the whole Internet Tablet phenomenon, there hasn't been a lot of product to show for it. Looks like that's all about to change, with CFO Rick Simonson commenting this week that the company will "definitely" be releasing some Linux-based cellphones in the future, marking a pretty big move for a company with strong tradition in its long-lived Series 40 dumbphone and S60 smartphone platforms. Simonson refused to get into the nitty gritty details about what flavor of mobile Linux would be used; borrowing from its tablets might make sense, but the Android and LiMo juggernauts seem like they're going to be pretty hard to ignore as well -- not to mention that Google is said to have chatted briefly about Android with Nokia in the not-too-distant past. So what does this all mean? Is S60 Touch in danger here?

[Via Thumb Report]

Update: A closer look-see at Reuters' report (ignoring the misleading headline) indicates that Nokia has not specifically committed to rolling out Linux on phones -- rather, it has simply said that it intends to expand its use of Linux across its product portfolio. We figure that handsets are bound to get swept into the mix at some point, but technically, we could just be looking at other kinds of devices. Always room for another Internet Tablet or three, we suppose. Thanks, Eric!

We're not able to glean much of a clue what this all means to the program exactly, but at least four players in and around Nokia's Maemo team have quit in the past few weeks. The company's so-called "Internet Tablets" -- the 770, N800, and N810 -- have been the main beneficiaries of the Maemo community's efforts; with Nokia's recent acquisition of Trolltech it's pretty clear that the company's still fully committed to the open source thing, but who knows, maybe Maemo's not the way they want to do it. Fortunately, Maemo's picked up enough of a following to live on with or without Nokia's support, but it'd be an awful shame to see 'em move in an entirely different direction nonetheless. We'd say the platform's safe -- for the moment, anyway, with the impending launch of the WiMAX'd N810 seeming likely -- but we'll keep an eye out for developments.