Engadget has a fantastic interview with AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega. Ryan Block drills him, of interest, the interview asks why the hold up with Nokia (Symbian S60) devices coming to the US and why the lack of marketshare. The response... in a nutshell it's Nokia, it's the lag time after Euro release, and also devices shipping "full of flaws" ... ouch!

The interview touches on such topics as selling unlocked devices, symbian devices coming to market, pet peves, and Symbian devices specific to the US market - for fun read Darla's take on the interview... which apparently came close to making her puke - a great read Darla.. thanks!

Some comments I like:

We have always been very open in terms of working with manufacturers.

If you want Symbian operating system we have phones that are Symbian-based

What about unlocked phones:

Just tell them that you want a "no-commitment price" and that phone can be sold. No body wants to buy it because you, in fact, are paying a premium for the phone. Ask them for the "no-commitment price" so that you don't have to sign a contract, one or two year. And I think they will be able to say, ok fine you can buy that phone, there is no contractual requirement for that.

and my favorite - Symbian has had a really difficult time making its way into America. Especially on AT&T... Why is it that the process that's in place right now for releasing advanced devices is so effective at keeping us behind in the wireless world

... In the case of Nokia, you can talk to their executives... And so my biggest pet peeve with Nokia in particular, and you can talk to them -- because I've certainly talked to them on this -- is, why are you releasing that device in Europe first, and then letting us having it device 6 months or even later in the US? And their reason is that's their core market. So they release and develop everything to work in Europe first. Now as a result of our complaining they have built a development lab in San Diego to begin to develop devices for the US. They are still not on par with other companies, but that is my biggest pet peeve... They have not been giving it to us at the same time that they have been giving them to European operators.

so what about the N75... The N75 is a device that Nokia developed specifically for AT&T, for US spectrum and with your 3G network

He couldn't speak to the N75 and the resulting delays in coming to market in the US, however, WRT the E62... I can speak to the E62 because I was there when that device was launched, and it was full of flaws.