Are we Beta testing the N97 for Nokia?

Question

Because if i was given this as a beta release i would have told them what i thought, the current launch version on the N97 with V10 firmware is barely an Alpha release, this phone was a rush job thrown out on the market to coincide with the launch of the iphone 3Gs.
This is my fourth N series, N80, N95, N95 8gb (the best N series yet), and now this N97 what should be Nokia's flagship, but being stripped of apps and filled with Trial versions to please the accountants at Nokia.
Day one and it locked up twice, corrupted my contacts when synced with OVI, and ran down to less than 4mb on the C drive, day 2 i found the GPS was not working, it was a joke, walking down the road under a clear sky and it could not hold a signal lock, driving was worse barely holding a signal for a few seconds and as for sitting spinning it round for an age to get the compass to work........forget it id rather be lost than look like a **bleep**.
Deleting apps and reinstalling them on the mass memory frees up some space, but why should we have to do this, the whole phone is badly thought out and configured.
Soon after the stylus supplied with the phone and attached to the phones only tie point scratched my screen, what was wrong with a rear cover with a bump and a thin PDA style stylus, no not good enough for Nokia, a fat thing on a string will do for them. 
New Firmware release 4 days after UK launch and still not available to most users as it has not been network approved yet, 3 network say its Nokia's job and they are delaying things, Nokia say its the networks delay. Come on if it was needed that quickly why leave most of your customers waiting, or just get to work on a layered OS with a standardised core with a network layer, so everyone can have the updated without waiting.   
4 weeks in on this phone, i too have the scratched camera lens, still No working GPS, and having some good negotiations with Three to try to reverse the contact upgrade, as i don't think another N97 will last any longer than this one.
I see Nokia spending Millions on punting the N97, TV, Billboards, Net adds, why push so hard on what is a sub standard product, could you imagine Joe public trying to free off some memory by moving apps, tell the care centres to brace themselves the N97 flood will be coming their way.
What next, well if 3 don't cancel the upgrade, then Nokia will have to fix my phone again and again and again untill it works as advertised, in the mean time i am off to get in touch with watchdog so they can let Joe Public know what to expect from an N97.
Rob 
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Answer 1

I don't believe we're beta testing the N97 for Nokia. Beta testing suggests it is in a state prior to production. Nokia's track record (at least to me) seems that leading edge phones never reach a stable plateau.
What I believe happens is the phone is released and remains unstable until they sort of perfect the platform, then a new handset is released bringing a whole new world of bugs and problems and so the cycle continues.
By the time the phone is suitable for every day use it is, by today's technological stance, ancient and the damage has already been done to the reputation.
S40 phones seem to fare much better, mainly because it is much more widely used within Nokia. S60 is up against some fine competition from vendors who will rush fixes out.. Nokia only ever seems to rush phones out. It isn't the same and it shows (see their forcast for the next 6 months)
I honestly would not be surprised if this flagship phone limps on in a partially functional state until it is superceeded by a budget blackberry clone.
Sad? Very! Am I being cynical, or telling it like it is.
I'd be real interested to know if any exec at Nokia used the N97 in the weeks before it was released.. Not that I'm a fan, but we all know Stevie J used an iphone long before it was released.. I kind of get the impression they must all use very basic "corporate" s40 handsets and assume their flagship product must be of the same calibre.
Next release, why not give 100 people N97 for testing, real testing.  It seems Nokias quality assurance team is out of touch with what a $700 handset demands.. ooooh, I gasp in awe at your 30 MB of free capactity when you remove ALL the applications you can. (It's like having a 2TB hard drive in a computer and continuing to boot from a floppy)
I appreciate there are product time lines to meet, but if Nokia were aiming to compete with the likes of the pre, iphone and the various android handsets (not even mentioning windows mobile) rushing out a phone like this was very wide of the mark. Concept wise, the N97 is a great design.. the implementation of both the hardware and software just isn't going to cut it in todays market.. 
(but this is what they want? you'll get bored with the handset and buy a replacement! yeay!)