Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

Their Android devices haven't been horribly locked down. Pretty much all HTC devices can be rooted trivially, and the Motorola lockdown is a charge being led by Motorola.

Verizon is surprisingly hands-off. I still wouldn't go with them by virtue of being forced into a contract just to get a handset, maybe that'll change when LTE comes to the fore.

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

Well, to my ears, saying something is a "complete blocker" means that the device is not usable in the US because of that problem. I was taking issue with that. You *can* use the N900 if you are in an area within the US with only AT&T coverage - you just get dramatically reduced data bandwidth, and voice is unaffected. T-Mobile coverage in most large US cities is fine. I don't see how this can be characterized as a "complete blocker". "Minor inconvenience" is more in line with my experience.

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

Try to find some code related with Verizon RF or Wifi or BT.
It could be interesting how to change a kernel.

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

Can you expand upon this? I wasn't aware Verizon had -anything- to do with the software installed on the HTC handsets.

Are you suggesting that they've crippled the Wifi or BT or something?

As for why Nokia isn't doing well in the US, I suspect it's because Nokia is largely unwilling to compromise their brand and play second fiddle to the worthless carriers. But since they're not a high profile US company like Apple, they feel content to sideline Nokia. Personally, this is only bad for us as it constrains the market and forces companies to do stupid crap like what Samsung had to do with their hardware.

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

What does Verizon have to do with wifi or bluetooth? For that matter, I've got a very customized (Ultimate Droid Extreme mod) Motorola Droid--being on Verizon didn't really limit me very much at all. I was able to improve my call quality with the VOCODER tweak. Is that what you mean, or are you referring to the binary block drivers (which, on Maemo, are also closed binary blobs... I mean.. if you're making comparisons)?

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

what's with the t-mo hate? it's not their fault that they got a very weird 3g band. there's not enough 2100 spectrum available when they decided to go 3g and only the 1700 was left so they don't have a choice since they are already late in entering 3g...

as for coverage, yes it's smaller but the network mostly focus in the cities than in the nowhere or suburbs. wider coverage is better but that doesn't mean t-mo's that bad...

focus on bigger networks? sprint and verizon might be bigger but the technology they use is impractical. cdma is not as flexible as gsm where just swap sim cards and you're good to go. you can't even give a cdma phone to anybody especially overseas. how about att? yes it's a gsm but the network is collapsing because of too many users. quality is bad.

right now, only t-mo offers a REAL unlimited data plan without any cap...

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

I think things will change once LTE starts rolling out more. Nokia-Siemens now own quite a nice chunk of that network.

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

That "weird 3G band" is the one that everybody uses the world over. It's the AT&T 3G band that's the "weird one".

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

look at the samsung galaxy S, EVERY us carrier got one. that is crazy. i bet the galaxy s series is gonna end up selling more than any other high end phone in the US.

the new nokia phones are pentaband though, so that should help some. it doesnt seem like they are going to bend at all on cdma though except for some rebranded low end models. they are probably ok to just wait for lte

Re: Why Nokia fails in the US
 

I'm pretty sure there was a plan to get the N900 on T-Mobile's plate. Just didn't happen.

We get the odd 850 MHz band courtesy of the US military, which has the more globally common 900 band reserved.