This is a huge story - Nokia have always resisted letting users update their own phone's firmware, presumably because it's been a hairy process using custom Phoenix software and didn't want legions of people arriving at their service centres with 'dead' units. With this new 'friendly' updater software, they're presumably now more confident that users (armed with broadband, so that everything needed can be sucked from the web) can complete the task themselves.
No more trips to the service centre! More frequent updates to fix bugs! The bad news: only a handful of 2nd Edition handsets are supported so far. Still, it's a start. The updater utility is only a few days old - let's hope many more S60 and S80 models appear in their compatibility list very soon, especially the 3rd Edition devices which are in more urgent need of updates.
Thanks to Symbian Freak for the heads-up.
If you try this service, please comment!