Well you already mentioned the 3430 which offers a lot more performance per cpu cycle than the 2420 does. Both are just over 2yrs old. Since Nokia has a long standing and substantial cpu purchase order on the 2420 it gives them a considerable leverage to change the order for a higher performing cpu - and TI the ability to highlight those Nokia products to show off its cpu power. Of course if utilized correctly in the N97 should Nokia negotiate with TI to use it; and if sales negotiations allow TI to use the N97 or future products from Nokia in advertisements without paying royalties to Nokia for using them in such a case.
When a product is still in prototype stage, the materials used for casing, paint, finishings, and also the internals can be changed up till the final stage has been agreed upon by:
SW Developers
Electrical Engineers
hardware designers
& (finaly) the end product being submitted to the FCC, CRTC, or other governing bodies.
IF it fails those governing bodies in testing - then its back to the the drawing board for the hardware designers & Electrical Engineers. Why? Well maybe the transmitting/receiving radios emitt too much radiation (higher than 2Watts for example), chips & circuitry exhibits issues with the user possibly being electrically shocked, or maybe the casing allows too much radiation to be emitted or some finish allows for the electrical shock or the paint maybe toxic. This latter situation occured with the initial low number batch of the SE w580 that even Rogers had initially sourced and both did a recall.
Case in point. SE's Xperia X1 gained a faster cpu cycle and 128MB more of RAM while 64MB of ROM was increased just 3mths before being FCC tested & released from production to shipping. Yet it was announced in March 2008. This N97 isn't going to ship until 1st half of 2009 or QTR 2 of 2009.
By then I do hope that the following is changed:
* S60 5th Edition allows for menu/Options shortcuts (similar to BB FW).
* OLED - with higher contast & brightness is used than that of the 5800.
* LCD is glued/cealed to the glass/plastic screen - no allowance for dust, and higher screen readability.
* More powerful ARM 9+11 CPU with much MUCH faster cpu cycles so that even with 10 running applications no LAG is detectable/perceivable even by the most avid Symbian Freak! In this day & age where the RIM Blackberry BOLD, Storm, iPhone 3G, and even the HTC & ASUS WM Pro devices are kicking upwards of 550 - 800Mhz (Asus on the later) cpu speeds on ARM9 compatible I'd love to see an S60 (3rd/5th) running at that speed. Seems those other OS' NEED that kind of speed to run smooth without lag, but can you imagine S60?! This IS their flagship is it not?
To be frank I think its too early for Nokia to announce the N97 to be the flagship for 2009 - it scars me because I think this'll sadly be another N96.