I agree; without Android and the iphone, Nokia wouldn't have felt any pressure. I think they became complacent with the early success of the N series and rested on their laurels for too long....now they have been outclassed by the Koreans and Android/OSX in the touchscreen segment.
Currently, Nokia does not have a truly desirable touchscreen handset; the resistive ones (N97/X5800) simply don't cut it...the touch operation is neither smooth nor intuitive . I haven't tried the N900. I had high hopes for the X6, but early reviews seem to suggest that it's just a middle of the road handset, not a high end device.
The best implementation of a touch UI on top of the ageing S60 seems to be Samsung's TouchWiz on the Omnia HD, but even that can only do so much. Nokia needs a new OS optimized for touchscreen operation; hopefully Maemo 6 will deliver for the short term.
I love my E71 and was looking for a Nokia model to replace it soon, but looks like I will have to move to another brand (except Apple lol), most likely the Motorola Milestone or one of the newer Samsungs
Regarding the battery/headset...my E71 has a stellar battery that keeps on going and going, but it also has a lousy 2.5 mm audio jack, so I could not plug in my usual set of earphones, I had to buy a third party set (the Nokia supplied ones were not in-canal type). But Sony Ericsson is the worst offender when it comes to non-standard connectors