Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

I don't know where you live, but I visited Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Prague, Wien, Linz, Budapest, London, Glasgow, this past few months, and free wifi is almost completely unheard of. Even in hotels, it was less than 50%, and I was looking for this option when selecting a hotel.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

could be one is more used to tethering in europe. I cant speak for the rest of europe, but here in norway, tethering is part of the package, no extra "plan", no need to unlock anything, just get the right profile, and off you go.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

I don't like the word "should" in this case but I think it is that attracts people to N900. I speak on myself but I feel it is true for many. I tried to say that even I am a long time Linux guy I didn't step into Linux tablet area just because I prefer notebook and netbook to small tablet - there is no principal difference between. Just small Linux box doesn't hit me, there are GPRS/3G internet cards for notebooks on market.

But small PHONE with full-blown Linux (not just Dalvik's Java in google gadgets) overweights the small screen/KBD drawbacks. The possibility of access to Internet virtually anywhere with 3G bandwidth buys me too. I already used this with Symbian Nokia 6133 and N-series but that is not Linux and very restrictive - there is no difference between it and something like iPhone, provider controls anything.


If I can bring a DEVICE during business I prefer a netbook or notebook. If I can't - I want a phone with Internet access. The tablet is out of equation here.


There is a big difference - Palm was NOT able to reach the cellphone market in time and lost it (ok, there is a big competition of big labels in this area and they doesn't allow Palm reach it... patents, expertise etc).

Moreover, they never understand the customer demands for powerful communication device. I still have my old Palm M500 (and former user of Palm V, Palm III etc) and I remember the widespread frustration then Palm abandoned WiFi in SD capable Palm V. Anybody WANTED network access but they just dumped us. And competitors did it faster.

As for Nokia, the tablet support ... well, it could please some customers, of course, but it is not competitive against netbooks. Small screen, no good KBD, no good 3G access... Sorry guys, it is on sides of progress now.


As long as it has NO voice/3G it will compete with netbooks and I prefer Linux (or even Windows ;) ) to a stripped device.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

It is too bad embedded VNC servers never caught on in appliances with connectivity.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

For Budapest (where I live), the (chain-owned) hotels are pretty much the only places where you can't have free wifi (I don't know what are they thinking). The city is actually full of free hotspots, pretty much all the caffes, restaurants (MacDonalds too), gas stations, shopping-malls have them. There are even full districts in the city which have 100% outdoor coverage (city sponsored, eg. 7.th district).

Last year I visited quite a few german cities, and the situation was pretty much the same, it wasn't difficult at all to find a free hotspot. Again, the big hotel chains asked for money, but the smaller ones had free hotspots.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

Of course WIFI isn't available in every location, but having travelled rather extensively (including places most probably haven't heard of) I can't remember a place - large or small - where WIFI wasn't available somewhere. One just has to look or ask around.

But the lack of comprehensive global WIFI coverage is beyond the point.You have your mobile phone and you tether. When travelling abroad get a local SIM card and you're always online.

And anyway the key advantages of a mobile companion device are that you can leave it at home, car or in your hotel room, with family or friends, and it still provides service while you carry your mobile around, battery life unaffected. (If both Nokia devices used the same battery model you could just bring one spare... Another incentive to buy a Nokia phone. But why oh why are the batteries always different)

With proper multi-user (incl. guest user) and security features (they're there and open source, it's just of matter of implementing them) you could even momentarily leave the tablet with the friends you just made on the road. You wouldn't do that with your personal mobile phone.

If the Maemo ecosystem fails to gain adequate momentum vs. competing systems, some of us will have an inkling why. (looks at Nokia's market segmentation strategy)

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

As a first time maemo user, i can tell you that I wouldnt be holding a N900 right now if it wasn't a phone. I was actually looking to buy a HTC HD2 until I saw the N900 in action. No matter what you and I may think we know about Nokia's market strategy, I think Nokia know what they are doing.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

This is spot on and I think most of you here are failing to see the bigger picture.

Four years ago I had an ipod, macbook and Sony Ericsson W950 touch screen phone.

Two years ago I converged the ipod and W950 into the iPhone and a macbook.

Now i've converged the lot into the N900 and have the added bonus of a (decent enough) camera to boot.

I would never have considered the N900 if it didnt sport the various radios and connectivity. I also have never paid any previous attention to the Nokia tablet range.
If Nokia ever wanted to take Maemo to the next level, this is exactly what they needed to do. Several of my colleagues and friends are also considering the move and all of us are mid twenties in IT/Media that Nokia need right now to adopt and third party market the brand to prep for maemo 6.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

I'm not really sure what you are arguing for or against.

No one's against having Maemo-based mobile phones/internet computers in the market. In fact the more the merrier! (wish there were even non-Nokia models with Maemo come to think of that)

Would it invoncenience you, as a user of the Nokia N900 integrated phone/tablet, if there were other, cheaper models that would simply tether (or use WIFI) to get connected, and which were occasionally used as plain tablet computers or media devices or whatnot?

I don't think so.

What if the availability of the non-phone "phone companion" tablet model(s) helped make Maemo a more popular platform, resulting in more software also for the Maemo phone users? Would that be troubling?

But if you're happy with Nokia's exclusive market segmentation of Maemo, well, good luck with everything. Although I'm personally not interested in the current exclusive Nokia/Maemo offering, as an environmentally conscientious person I hope that Nokia and the Maemo ecosystem sustains your device beyond the next year or two. If the Maemo community was larger maybe the support would last longer yet and the software selection might be greater too.

Re: "Surging iPod touch eclipses the iPhone" ... while Nokia stupidly abandons tablets!
 

Peet's post #49 makes the most important points perfectly. Kudos!