Although MeeGo is incompatible with the more dominant Google Android platform, Elop has ruled out any Nokia Android devices, saying at the Qualcomm Uplinq conference on Thursday: "Our strategic premise at Nokia is that there is an opportunity for a third and competitive ecosystem to emerge, and that is the basis on which we are going forward."

Investors haven't responded in a way Elop might have liked. Coupled with , there's even talk of .

The tablet boat is already well out to sea, and Nokia could find it difficult to hitch a ride once it is ready. Apple, Samsung, Motorola and others are already

Still, there is a big market out there -- and it is growing.

According to technology research and advisory firm Gartner, tablet sales could reach 295 million by 2015. Maybe that's what Nokia is banking on, setting up a potential situation in the future akin to , when pioneers IBM and Compaq ceded much of the market to later arrivals like Gateway just a few years later.