Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

The Droid looks and feels more substantial in person than the N900. The battery cover is metal, in addition to the screen rim. The lack of lens cover is unfortunate.

Actually, It's like comparing the N97 and the N97 mini: http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2009/09/...mini-hands-on/

Besides, don't you know that the 90's are back? (The 80's came back too but are so 2005). The Droid is going to be hot with people who want to be hip, not to mention it's going to end up in more hands than the N900 (in the US, since Verizon is bigger than T-Mobile).

There's no doubt Maemo is the better platform/OS. But Android 2.0 is huge leap over previous versions.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

1) Maemo has a real desktop browser, not a mobile browser (Android has a finger-fancied-up-but-still-mobile browser)

2) You don't need to break anything in order to "root" Maemo. It's not 100% straight forward, but it's pretty straight forward. And you don't break anything when you do it.

3) That should make it easy to do wifi tethering (hopefully), which is not easy on Android (without rooting it).

4) Maemo gives you command line access to the Linux environment. Android does not (without rooting it).

5) Maemo is compatible with many (but not all) general Linux apps. Android is not.

6) Maemo: Actual OpenSSH and VNC viewer. Android: good imitations, but still imitations.

7) last I checked, Maemo had better IM clients than Android.

8) Maemo, hopefully, still has a Rhapsody client. Android's is still on the way.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

Are you kidding? Unless you're talking about America alone, I can't really agree with that. The N900 has a similar amount of pre-orders as the original N95 had, and let me remind you of that all the different N95 versions outsold the Iphone 2G and 3G combined!

The N900 alone will undoubtly outsell all Motorola's Android devices (Cliq and Droid) combined, but not necessarily all Android devices. Remember, Motorola won't most likely even sell their phones outside USA, because their previous failures. The fact that the original version of Droid lacks a SIM card slot doesn't make it better either.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

The Android browser _can_ do most real desktop pages, but not completely.

For example, you wont get the "full" versions of Google Apps. You'll get "mobile plus" versions, that give you finger input but otherwise only have the features of the mobile apps. Also, the built-in Gmail app can't always click on URLs in messages, for example (I have about a 30% chance of being able to click on the notices that talk.maemo.org sends me, when someone has PM'ed me or followed up to a thread I've subscribed to; otherwise I have wait til I get back to a desktop to follow up and such).

And you wont be able to use the direct web pages for facebook -- it will constantly try to put you into the portugese version of the site. (not a big deal to me, because I don't use facebook while I'm mobile, but it does indicate that there's a difference between the Android browsing experience and a full desktop browser -- the Android browser has some quirks and limitations) (if you do care about facebook, there's supposedly an Android app for it)

The quality of the browser is, actually, a SIGNIFICANT advantage for Maemo, IMO.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

Where are you getting your numbers? I can't confirm this. What I see is that the N95 sold 15 millions units. For example, that's the number cited on Nokia's Conversations web site, see: http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/...agship-device/

Whereas the iPhone sold 17 million units by March of this year (http://www.networkworld.com/news/200...7-million.html) and then in the last quarter alone sold another 7.4 million (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/19...n-ever-before/). That adds up to 24.4 million iPhones. And that leaves out the quarter from April to June, so the number is probably closer to 30 million (i.e. twice as much as the N95).

Also the industry analyst predictions show Android phone sales just eclipsing Maemo and the iPhone, in the next three years (http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/ar...ars/1256668455). Admittedly, that will not be based on the Droid alone, but that's not Google's strategy so it's not really a relevant comparison. And Symbian is predicted to hold onto the most market share, but it's market share will be dropping rapidly, while the iPhone will be plateauing and Android will be growing over 1000%.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

Motorola RAZR sold over 100 million (much more than the N95) and since the DROID is a throwback to that, it may just click with most people. Its overly optimistic to claim that N900 will outsell the Cliq and Droid put together, Android may not be as powerful as our beloved Maemo but it ticks all the right boxes in this day of apps. Added to this, Nokia has failed to make much traction in the US market and the delay of the N900 has killed off any chances it ever had considering the DROID and Xperia plus numerous Android phones which are ready to go.

Motorola DROID will be on sale in Germany a week today as MILESTONE - thats fast delivery, much faster than N900 which was announced back in August and still bears a tentative release date.

The N900 is still in labour.

Be wary of speaking too soon.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

Just the issue of having to remove the battery to get to the sd card is lame for me. Not to mention the KB which performs about like the VK does. There is no sense of separation with the keys. Way too easy to hit two keys at once.

Less impressed actually trying the device than reading about it. Still, the screen is sexy, but I have not seen the N900 to try for comparison.

After handling Droid, the d-pad size, shape, location and actual function seems counter intuitive and a waste of space.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

Yes, the d-pad is a bit baffling to me, since it's a touch phone. Especially since many reports say the keyboard on the Droid really really sucks. It seems like it would have made a lot more sense to use the space for a bigger, better laid out, more usuable keyboard.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

Not baffling at all.

Touch screens are imprecise. They're good for fat fingers, and broad/continuous gestures. Dpads are good for precise and discrete movements/gestures. Incremental movements of small widgets works very well with a dpad. Touch screens, with inertial scrolling and such, are much better suited for fast movement and selecting large widgets. Incremental or precise movements of small widgets on a touch screen is abysmally annoying and error prone.

Dpads are great companions to a touch screen. The one that's baffling is the HTC Android phones that all pair a trackball with a touch screen (since tiny trackballs, especially on Android where you can't adjust the sensitivity, are suited for fast and imprecise movement, just like touch screens).

Or did you mean the gold color of the dpad? yeah, that's kinda garish.

Re: Can someone tell me why N900 and not Android?
 

I'll admit to having not read this thread because I'm just going to give my reasons rather than debate other people's.

When I buy a phone/smartphone I want to pay for it and own it free and clear. Nokia gives me that option while others do not.

It's not purely about whether the operating system is "open source" or not but how open the services on it are and how open the access for application delivery is.

With Android you're entirely dependent on google for services and application delivery. You're essentially paying twice for the device, once to the manufacturer and again to google via generated ad revenue to actually use the phone. You can't use their maps offline nor will you ever be able to. All of their services are geared towards online service access because that's what google are about.

With Nokia you can generally install applications from anyone even on Symbian. You're not restricted to a controlled application delivery mechanism which has been demonstrated to not always be in the interests of the consumer (in Apple's case at least). With Maemo in particular it's a much more open platform in all ways.

So if I'm going to pay €500 for a phone I want to buy everything that comes with it. I don't want to pay just so I can be monetised as ad revenue statistic.