Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

Sorry but that is a pipe dream. Of coarse Apple will update the Iphone, the next incarnation will have full flash support and have 64gb of internal storage. and there will probably be 150,00 apps in the app store by then.
Nokia is trying to build a phone to basicly do what the I phone did 3 years ago. Nokia aimed low with the N900 and hit low by releasing an unfinished product without many of the basic features of the most basic phones. And in case you have not been paying attention to whats going on in the world, its not about hardware any more, its what you can do with it, today. That means apps and app support. Which Nokia is severely lacking in.
For all the griping I have been hearing about the Apple app store and the restrictions, The OVI store it seems is even a bigger pain in the ***. Here is my favorite, nokia politely telling developers to F@$# off
"EDIT: Chanse Arrington, an employee of Nokia have stated through twitter than Ovi store isn’t the only way to deliver applications, and free applications will be available through Maemo.org.
Yeah way to go Nokia

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

I have to disagree. Nokia is trying to redefine the market with the n900 and like devices. They are saying that their apporach to how a mobile device is the best available and it is what consumers want. An example of this is plug-in's vs. apps. Think about it... it is a 'revolutionary' concept to the clear majority of smart phone users. its saying you don't need an app for that because it is/can be part of the way the device works.

There have ALWAYS been multiple channels for developers to distribute their wares, ANYONE can open up an appstore... now will ovi carry it? i dont know- but, both symbian and maemo users have been able to get 'apps' from a variety of places and install them on their device. A good example is Google Maps - I dont believe it is even available in the OviStore but I have had it for years running on my n95 and then 5800... I got it right from googles mobile app page.

I hope to see new app stores pop up that might suit me better than ovi. Amazon could come up with its own services channel that lives on your device where you get your music, apps movies etc. I think it would be a GREAT move for a company like amazon. They have great rating tools, brand recognition etc.

I expect that they will but so what? I have 48gb of storage on my 900 today and will have 64gb as soon as the microSD cards are available. Ovi has been around for 5 months and has half a billion downloads and every day they are selling tens of thousands of ovi-capable devices (including forecast 50 Million Maemo devices sold in 2011) - that is a real market that will drive the supply of new applications. Nokia services are going to hockey stick and grow exponentially,

Of course most of us do not live in a dictatorship and we are each able to choose what we want. Amazing marketing or amazing tech... I know what i want.

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

finally something i agreed with in the post! WAY to go Nokia!!!!

You don't make me stick to your service channel you let ME choose where to get my content, apps plug ins etc!!!

WAY to go Nokia!!!!

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

I wouldn't say that that's the goal of using the Maemo platform, but it is a huge part of how Nokia thinks a mobile device should be - features should be included with the 3rd party application space left to those things that truly enrich and magnify the built-in capabilities of the device.

The AppStore phenomena is a short-term answer to the real issue behind mobile devices, namely, the user interface and user experience sucks for it being a personal device. And until the device itself can automatically adapt to the user without intervention of an app, then this is the route to take.

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

The n900 is not a smartphone in sense of making a phone smart but a comphone - a computer with phone feature.
The actual difference in technology may be small, but is a revolutionary step as we are now free to make it do what we need instead of what someone will let us do with it.

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

Yes, that's the stuff.

Decent smartphone at a low price point.

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

I would be curious what you see as the difference in technology? The N900 shares its CPU with other smartphones and it is no longer the fastest smartphone CPU. The N900 shares the Linux core of its OS with other OSs. It has a keyboard but so do some other smartphones. It has a less limited browser than some smartphones but with others it's a close race. The revolutionary step in smartphones has been mutlitasking and that step was taken by the Palm Pre and is shared with many other smartphones at this point.

As far as making it do what you need, that's nothing to do with technology and it's not revolutionary, it's reactionary. It dates back to the days when computers didn't come with any software, not even an OS. You made them do what you needed them to do. I have enough trouble making my kids do what I need them to do. When it comes to my smartphone, I would rather buy something that does what I need.

Like it or not, the N900 is a smartphone and all it's computing capabilities are what make it "smart" but they do not make it a real "computer" as the world has come to know that term. It's a great toy for progammers and it has the potential to be a great smartphone but there are still a lot of rough edges and not a lot of good apps.

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

I strongly agree with he sentiment and the sooner people get past it the better. Today, with a little (or a lot) of cajoling a number of phones can do very similar things to the n900 (root access etc.) with lots of memory, disk space, nice UI experience etc.

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

I agree it is not the goal of the platform, its the goal of Nokia, the platform is how they implement the message - it is not the message in itself. it is similar in approach to what apple did with the iphone - they said that your mobile, should be able to do anything = there is an app for that. (even if it is a serial process)

Nokia has a different story to tell - maybe your phone is your connection to the digital world - or you don't need an app for that. I dont know what the final message will be...

Re: Dumbing Down Smartphones
 

I've yet to see any other "smartphone" do what the n900 can potentially do with running things like KDE and Debian (based off of what was possible with the n800/n810). Well besides the G1 which can also run Debian and OpenOffice. That's what makes it a real computer to me. Heck, theoretically you could even plug it into any TV (for a larger display), and use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. That looks more computer than smartphone to me (but of course it's based on what the individual's use is).

I see two sides of a convergence battle with an eventual middle point. Though what that middle point will be, I have no idea. It may be a complete redefining of what computing will be seen as. As someone pointed out, there is a general movement towards cloud services (e.g Google Docs).

Edit: I guess an easy way to phrase it would be

Would adding cellular voice capability to any device that is decently portable (4 inch previous internet tablets, maybe even the MIDs we see out there around 7 inches) make it a smartphone or a computer? Or if you added a cellular radio to the internet tablets, would that make it a phone or just an internet tablet with cellular capability (more so for the mobile data rather than voice).

That's how I see the n900, just the new internet tablet with cellular capability (more so for the mobile data rather than voice). Though understandably not everyone thinks the same way.