Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

Well.. this is really the first thing to really bother me about my N900... kind a disappointed… and shows that Nokia is not that really interested in supporting our beloved N900..

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Of course. Free world wide unlimited 3G data subscriptions included would also be a strong plus as the price starts to decrease.

However, Nokia doesn't have it readily available for the N900 at the moment. What they have is an Ovi Maps version that isn't very good. We got that. In the next version of Maemo they've said they will have a better version, free. As the better version is made for Maemo 6, which will cost money and time to develop, in the future, Nokia may or may not decide to make it backward compatible and available for M5. Or someone may or may not find a way to enable M5 to run it without Nokia making any extra work for it.

Right now, Nokia will not put together an extra team of people because they think "hey, the GPS software we put in the N900 people, shouldn't we upgrade that for free?" * 1)

Because Nokia, like everyone else, are planning for future sales, not existing devices.


*) But they may already have done so, in the past. It is a possibility that they are already working on it as a way to strengthen the Maemo name in the market. It was said the list of devices would increase. However, Maemo is not Symbian which explains both why we weren't included this time and why the Maps version on the N900 is different (lousier) than on the 5800 Nav Ed.
And if they were, I don't think we'd been hearing all about the M6 milestone today.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

how come that i always buy these devices that are kicked in their butts by the developers? ^^

i just hope they'll make it available for free for the n900 sometime.

Re: Nokia to offer free navigation??
 

Is the source of the currently installed ovi maps available?

If that is the case then it can be updated to include the free service?

Failing that write a new version that can take advantage of the new free service?

At least we still have options or am I being naive?

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

I don't know, are you an early adopter? Early adopters are always screwed.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

This is the problem. It appears the n900 is already yesterday's technology and maemo 5 will be "legacy" software.

It is all about sales.

The n900 was successful but from Nokia's point-of-view no much money can be made from it once its been sold but they have to support it and this means allocating minimal numbers of developers to it. They would rather use these developers for the next product.

Nokia need to sell devices - the next version of maemo may not manifest itself until a new device is released. They are hoping you are willing to upgrade to the new device and generate more sales for Nokia.

Hopefully when maemo 6 is eventually released we can upgrade our n900s to the new version. If not there will be plenty of people p***** off people.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

I'm ok with Nokia not giving us N900 users free navigation for Maps.....

BUT at least give us a FUNCTIONAL Maps application!

I sincerely hope the Nokia team is improving on the application as we speak.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Perhaps, but it's common and wise business sense to retain your current customer base because it's less costly to keep one customer than attracting a new one. It's the easiest path to growing marketshare. Improving maemo5 is an investment in maemo6.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Why are you implying that the N900 is the past, its been out for a couple of months (in many cases, mainstream release ia few weeks ago!), not to mention rumours of an unsubsidised N900 in the US - assuming the press releases are correct the next maemo device will be out in H2 - that could be up until December. The N900 being the flagship product/highend product will be a key part of the Nokia portfolio. Support of Maemo ovi maps navigation will benefit future sales - even as yet the N900 is in its infancy.

Re: Ovi Maps goes free for premium content (no N900 *yet*)
 

Yes, it seems to me that MANY N900 sales are still in the future. The N900 environment is improving quickly--check your repositories. This is going to make it a more attractive purchase. Nokia needs to worry about two things: 1) The present, 2) the future. The N900 is both.