How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Seriously, Peter/Quim (or any other Nokia'n that can answer it), how Serious is Nokia planning on going after the US/Canadian market with the N900? Or has management, decided Step 5(6,7?) is when they will finally go after the North American markets w/ Maemo?

We are "technically" supported -- yes, we can pre-order it now from Nokia; but it will only support the 4th largest US phone carrier. Which based on market share only has somewhere around 11% of the US market (& like no market in Canada). What happened to targeting the larger pie's. Either something like CDMA which has 60% of the NA market, or even adding another model with the missing GSM bands and supporting at a minimum at least 40% of the market? But going after a potential of 8% that is just plain stupid marketing.

Nokia World 2009 is over, and no North American carriers announced they were going to carry it. Hello, Mr McFly, anyone home?

I mean when when the Pre was announce we know a in advance it was going to Sprint (and within days we knew Verizon would have it). When the new Android, and Blackberry phones were announced we knew where they were going to be. I think we even knew where the original IPhone was going to end up. We even know their is a unreleased Palm scheduled for the AT&T market.

But Nokia's new Flagship phone, uhm, hello, what, no launch partners at all? Are you all Crazy, you won't even make a dent in the North American markets with this type of marketing and planning.

So, honestly -- is Nokia actually planning on "doing" anything this time around; or do you plan on letting the Iphone, Android and Palm-Pre eat your lunch in the North American market for another year?

You don't have to divulge any specific plans,and I would be very happy with with a simple HONEST answer.

"Yes we plan on attacking the US/Canadian markets shortly" (i.e. <= 6 months); or No, we have no plans to work the market in the near future. (i.e.any plans are > 6 months)

Please note, before the NW09 I had assumed Yes, and my posts conveyed that message -- I firmly believed Nokia had planned on finally "attacking" the NA market. But I have to say after NW09, and the clear lack of anything direction wise -- I am pretty disappointed and believe the answer is you won't be doing anything in the NA market again.

Nathan

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

That's what i been wondering. It's pretty obviously why iPhone is dominantly here and Nokia is NOT because Nokia phone is not being supported. So how are you going to dominate the market if your phone is not allowed in ANY of the carrier EVEN though your phone looks great and superior than the other product. I think Nokia don't like their phone being crippled and having a hard time making a deal with the carrier. Good for consumers if the phone is not crippled but bad for business on both side.

So my conclusion is Nokia phone will never be popular here even if they come out a phone as slick and as great as iphone simply because they are not being supported for some reason.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

There's still plenty of time between now and release for press announcements including Maemo Summit so don't jump the gun yet.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

It is allowed on TMobile, the only network that supports it fully. Technically afaik, you can also use it on AT&T @ edge speeds.



Sorry, you lost me.... They officially announced it a couple days before NW09. They demo'd it and generated all sorts of good press for it at NW09. Quite a few Nokia stores had their pre-order links up before NW09 was done. We even know the estimated "shipping" date.

Maemo Summit is likely not going to be a "press" event; it is more a techie conference. Why would you expect they would pass "announcing" things at their Press event and announce them at the Maemo "tech" Summit? That would be pretty dang foolish. So I don't think I'm jumping the Gun. I want to know if they actually are planning on doing something or not.

Nathan

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Selling the phone at $700 unlocked is pretty bad business, compare this price with subsidezed phones like iPhone 3G only $99 and you will see why Nokia will loose market. No serious presence in USA means bad reviews or no reviews and no marketing because the most reviews come from USA and most of them are in English so USA dominates the world opinion.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Nathan, please reread what I wrote, specifically this part:

I never said press announcements would be MADE at Maemo Summit. We just know release is going to be right around then.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

You mean like the Aug 27th one:
http://www.nokia.com/press/press-rel...newsid=1337594

LOL, as I stated before -- NW09 they had all the peoples eyes they could want wanting and craving information. When they announced it they made a splash across a lot of sites. You want to make an announcement when you have people looking at you. Putting a Press release out sometime between now and Maemo Summit is pretty stupid when they could have put it out during NW09 and had a huge majority of the blogs parrot the info, giving it wide spread wings.


Think about it -- prior to NW09 we suspected TMO would have the device. If they said yes TMO will have the device starting Dec 1st, that would make people think twice about picking up a competitors device because that information would be spread across the NA sites and people would know "it is coming to TMO, soon". Right now, only some sites have mentioned you can order it from Nokia, and no one has a clue who will carry it (or even if a vendor will carry it), This is supposedly the Nokia Flagship device.

Apple, RIM, Palm all seem to realize that you give press material at press conferences along with the demo -- you want as much "sales" material and "desire" as you can get out out, so that people want it. I assume Nokia understands how it works.

Putting out a press release between now & Maemo Summit is rather pointless. Sure we here at maemo.org would pick it up right away; but the general public probably won't see it.

So no, I would not say I jumped the gun. I think the the answer is > 6 months, and I am hoping that I am wrong.

Nathan.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

+1 for making a Canadian version

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

LOL

What about "no" Scotty?

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Ok, i want this...NOW :P

But now I'm confused about bands allocation worldwide!
(...and Canada/Montreal)

From nokiausa: (of course nokia canada is a year behind! go figure...)

* Optimized for WCDMA 900/1700/2100
* Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900
* Optimized for 3G networks on WCDMA 900/1700/2100 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900

So does that mean that phone will work anywhere for voice but then for data we're screwed?

From what i gather, our GSM monopoly (Rogers/Fido, yes you! hopefully videotron and others will popup soon...? on the "right" frequencies?) is able to speak on 850 and 1900 for 3G...

Is an international phone still able to roam in 3G on the 2100 band?

Or does that mean we're stuck with EDGE and while traveling around Canada and in the USA too?

And then abroad i guess I'd have to get a prepaid data plan for vacations from another carrier... Also, any idea how to get the phone to here (except bribing friends south :P) ?

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

-1 for a canadian version. Canada's telecoms, CRTC, and/or Government need to get their collective acts together so that Canada can join 20th century telecommunications. Our prices are too high, and our services too limited.

}:^(~

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Apple certainly followed through the iPhone's release with a bit more than just a press release. We'll just have to wait and see Nokia's release programme.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

The US is a tough nut to crack. Though I would love to have a highly-subsidized N900 on a top-end carrier, it appears that we may get a grudging launch on the distant fourth-place T-Mobile sometime in the future. I haven't seen all the reasons in one place, so I'll take a crack at it:

--The smartphone market is fragmented (CDMA/GSM) and has a very strong incumbent (iPhone) on the best GSM carrier. AT&T has its hands full selling iPhones. Even if the subsidized N900 price could match the iPhone 3G (and it looks like it won't), why should AT&T bother training staff and customer support to service a competitor to its strongest product? And where's Nokia's incentive to build a CDMA variant with LTE on the horizon? So, T-Mob is the only possible US market for the N900, and their weak 3G network and poor US coverage is a hindrance to adoption.

--US carriers are used to companies like RIM who will cripple devices to address carrier whim (e.g., GPS on Verizon Blackberries, which has been available for years and only uncrippled a few months ago, because Verizon wanted to make $10/month from subscribers to use their terrible GPS software.) Nokia has said that they aren't going to customize (read "cripple") the N900 for carriers, and Maemo makes it easy to circumvent any customization, so this device is a risk for carriers, who fear that their 3g nets will be swamped with customers streaming flash video.

--The N900 is a high-end device for people who are willing to master some complexity in return for a really impressive list of features. My guess is that a fair number of this relatively small target market (those who want the features and have the money) are already committed to another smartphone. Other smartphone manufacturers, like Apple and RIM, are focusing on a much larger market: those who fear the complexity of the phone but want simple features. Your mom does not want a N900, she wants an iPhone or Blackberry Pearl, and your mom is where the growth is in this market.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

So because T-mobile is the 4th largest US telly carrier, T-mobile users shouldn't get any Nokia love? The last time a nokia smartphone that was compatible with T-mobile was the nokia 6600 in 2003! I think its time t-mobile users have an option that isn't on EDGE. Don't worry--Nokia isn't crazy they will not leave out At&t and everyone else that uses the 850 band, I'm sure the next maemo phone will be available to you guys and another nokia smartphone won't be compatible with T-mobile again for ANOTHER 6 years.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

co-sign im tired of hearing about how horrible tmobile is everyone have different experiences.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Everyone that I know who who had T-mobile had terrible reception problems. They actually had to walk out of their homes and down the street to make a call!

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Not where I'm at. T-Mo has the best voice coverage of all providers here. Veri$on has the largest 3G area, AT&T 2nd, Sprint 3rd, T-Mo 4th, but T-Mo's 3G area is now nearly as large as Sprint's and may soon surpass it. The various coverage maps are a kind of a joke, not very accurate at all.

T-Mo 3G is usually fast, no doubt partly due to the fact they have the newest 3G network equipment, all 3.5 service, no old 3.0 service like AT&T. I've used both T-Mo and Veri$on 3G extensively on the road (T-Mo for a G1, Veri$on for a laptop) and both are good, but Veri$on is really a pain to deal with. Had AT&T for a while on the laptop but it just was too slow and unreliable.

Sprint is the only one I really haven't had much experience with. But Kansas City is their World Headquarters, yet the service area is poorly covered. That's enough of a hint to me of their abilities.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

T-mobile reception isn't bad in my city, its att that worse here.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Oh, I don't disagree -- it is a tough nut to crack. You have blackberry which is entrenched in the business, iphone which is entrenched in well a lot of areas, and android in the geeks. Which goes back to my question, have they written off the market this time around or are they actually planning on fighting for it? This version of the phone really is targeting the Euro/Asia/African markets; TMO here does support the same freqs (since they are international) so they are releasing it here (hey why turn down free money); but this version of the phone is not really a NA phone.


AT&T, they are getting a Palm & Andriod phones; they aren't going to sit by and let the possible "next" best thing go by even if it cuts into their iphone market, they want as many subscribers as they can get, not to sell phones. Otherwise they wouldn't be selling the high end Blackberry, Android or getting Palms if they were so "Worried" about the iphone market. Besides odds are very high that Verizon will have a iphone in 2010. Apple wants to sell the iphone, they would be foolish now that they are entrenched in the market not to target the other 60% of the market. The biggest reason is that Nokia probably didn't offer a "exclusive" for 6 months (or more) and AT&T isn't going to go "market" something they can't use to promote themselves.

A LTE phone probably should be in Step 5. LTE isn't here and really won't be for a (long) while, knowing how slow all the carriers are in the NA, I wouldn't be surprised by the time they have a N1200 phone we might have decent LTE coverage. As it is TMO doesn't even have good 3G coverage.

As for CDMA, with 60% of the NA market being CDMA, that alone should be the incentive to build a CDMA version. I can take a CDMA phone from Sprint to Verizon to US Cellular, to Bell Canada and it will work. So if I bought one from the Nokia Store, I could use it on any CDMA carrier in NA. Unlike GSM, CDMA afaik has the same freqs on all the carriers. So you only have to make 1 phone to hit over 60% of the market in the NA.


I fully understand this -- and it wouldn't surprise me if this is why TMO hasn't come forward and said we have it. Their 3g network sucks and they don't want to have the same network growth issues at&t had, until they can build it -- I understand they are doing a build out of their 3g network but the timing isn't right for them. They don't want more bad press on how their network sucks. But, for Nokia; to change the game in NA they have to hit a majority of NA carriers not hit a carrier that isn't even going to carry it. Hence my question are they planning on sitting in NA or are they actually planning on trying to market it here.

I would totally disagree on this point. If the N900 is as simple as the videos I've seen; then my Mom (and your mom) should want it. Now I might want it because I can do a lot more with it then they could. But the ability the N900 brings to the normal user and business user is pretty high and really goes beyond the competition.

Nathan

TMO Coverage:
Please note 3G coverage on the TMO is very hit or miss. If you have it in your area then it is good (they some of the best & newest equipment). If you are not in an area it is way worse than most carriers. The big problem is they don't have a lot of 3g areas yet (rapidly deploying though). AT&T blankets the US, but is overloaded; that is their problem.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Actually pretty much any of the european model phones support TMO. TMO is international and their carrier in the US is using the same freqs as those in Europe/Asia/Africa/etc... That is really the reason why the N900 has those freqs -- its because this phone was never targeted for the NA area -- but the rest of the world where their customer base is larger. Nokia has no presence really in the US. Go to any phone store and you see primarily LG, Samsung, Moto, HTC. Maybe (if your lucky) 1 model of Nokia... In this regard because they stopped doing things in NA years ago -- they are actually "being smart", since targetting Euro/Asia/Africa is the largest slice of the "whole" pie.

I put a lot of thought into my original question and I think I have a pretty good understanding of the whole dynamics. I made a couple assumptions "before" NW09 that made me believe that they were going to target NA. But now based on what I saw & read about at NW09 -- I now believe those assumptions are wrong. So, rather than "assume" that they are going after NA (like I did). I wanted to see if what I believe now and what I am seeing is true.

I understand Maemo team has finally became a primary "group" inside Nokia, which gives them a lot better resources -- and before that point they had to target probably the largest market they could with one design. And I can't fault them for choosing the "largest" market they could. But my question pertains to now that they have resources; are they planning on going after NA this time around or are they going to continue to abandon the NA market.

It should be a simple Question for Quim/Peter to answer. I didn't ask them for anything besides if they are working on attacking the NA market < or > 6 month. My current theory now is that it is > 6 months, and I really "hope" I'm wrong.

Nathan.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

@nathan: I doubt a direct answer for such question can be given over an open forum like this. I'm guessing it's something along the lines of "We understand how important the NA market to us and are continuously trying to attend to our customer base in NA with all of our new products and services."

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/News/...ject_n900.html
.
According to this Veep, don't worry about NA because Nokia isn't planning on selling very many of these phones anyway.
.
I'm starting to get flashes of NIT deja 'vu.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Nokia makes very few (any?) CDMA smartphones. Up until last year RIM, a NA company, launched every flagship phone on GSM. Apple has yet to announce and launch an iPhone on CDMA. It's a secondary market worldwide, no matter how it dominates the US.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Honestly, *any* sales Nokia is able to make will likely double its market share in the U.S. If they can get the device out quicker/easier on T-Mobile than with AT&T, by all means, I support the decision. Nokia's market share in the U.S. is so low, specifically with smartphones, that *any* sales are better than what they've been doing.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Carrier customization is annoying. Yet the masses who buy direct from the carrier don't seem to care (in the U.S.). They often want the cheapest, preferably free, phone that will be an improvement over what just broke or got destroyed. Nowadays it almost has to have a qwerty keyboard of some kind due to texting volume.

I hide the AT&T icons for Music, Graphics, Tones, Games on the BBs I set up for my users. In the past I tried deleting the service books only to have them return. I did find what I thought was a policy item that would suppress the icons but haven't fully tested the success of this setting. And it is annoying to have my personal cell phone include hardcoded apps/icons I can't even hide, much less remove. A result of my choice though, not buying an unlocked phone I suppose.

I bring this up because I imagine that carriers make money by way of these customizations, often because customers are often blind and don't monitor their cell bill enough. (my users certainly don't, and then they deny making said "purchase" or refuse to pay for it) Everyone thinks "hey, because it's accessible on my phone and I didn't have to give a CC#, it's free". Yet it bills back to their wireless # through the carrier, even if from a 3rd party source. I believe more and more of these offerings now have legal disclaimers to accept, but again, what typical consumer reads them?

So since the N900 won't be offered in customized flavors to carriers, who says the carrier can't provide links to push OTA apps which DO offer these exact same services to N900 buyers? Why not have a web page/site dedicated to augmenting gimmick sales such as wallpapers, ringtones, etc. that is specific to the N900? I guess that's a choice carriers won't likely make, but has it been suggested at all I wonder? Maybe Nokia needs to develop and demo this to them. I mean why can't there be some form of signed installation package for these carrier apps that transmit to an IMEI through OTA and the user clicks once on the N900 to accept it?

Meanwhile the rest of us who grasp file system basics and understand the drag and drop concept can get our tones, wallpapers, etc. for free as we always have.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

I agree Nokia makes very few CDMA -- world wide CDMA is somewhere in the 20-30% so yes as I stated before GSM makes much more sense for the world wide market and the bands they choose are the largest supported. However NA based, CDMA has over 60% of the market.

Because Apple has saturated the AT&T market, it would be in their best interest to add CDMA. I'd be willing to make a wager that an Apple CDMA phone will come VERY (VERY) shortly after the AT&T exclusive is done to both Verizon and probably Sprint (Might be an exclusive with Verizon for the first 6 months). Apple wants ITunes users; they need and want to increase that market share. The Apple Lock-in is aesome for apple so if they can get you on their phone; you might stay for a really long time.


That is my fear -- and so far no responses from either is in imho confirming it. I can't see any reason why that can't say < 6 months; unless it is not true; which means don't "talk" about it.

It was worth a try to see how open they would be about this market. ;-)

Nathan.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

There may at least be a glimmer of hope for Canada supporting the 3G frequency that N900 will initially use.

Rogers bought enough 1700/2100 spectrum for the entire country in 2008. They paid about $1B for it so I am pretty sure they will use it as some point, after all, no sense in spending a Billion dollars and not doing anything with it.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/a.../21/c6305.html

A few other interesting notes:
Cingular, now ATT, purchased a huge chuck of this spectrum that covers about 200 million people.

Verizon Wireless also purchased a large block of 1700/2100 that covers the eastern US. One has to wonder why they spent nearly $3B for that?

And finally another organization called Spectrum Company bought enough of those licenses to cover the entire US, reaching nearly 270 million people.

http://www.cdg.org/news/events/cdmas...20Overview.pdf

Maybe Nokia knows a lot more about what is happening with the carriers and 3G (or at least the AWS band) than the rest of us. The unfortunate thing most of us do know, these things will TAKE WAY TOO LONG, even if/when they do happen.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

So, anyway we can order them in Canada directly?

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

When I read things like these I'm really happy that I do not have to use US carriers for my mobile phone experiences (although T-Mobile here in Germany has different data plans for the iPhone than it has for non-iPhone customers and it is a first that you have to pay for tethering your device to an iPhone here in Germany).

I really do hope that that was a slip and our market here doesn't get americanized.

I have a data plan which is completely unrelated to my phone plan (although it is from the same carrier).

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Edge only? Sorry, but no way. Ever. There is a serious dearth of free wifi spots around here, with a metro population of well over a million. I've literally never run into one unless someone's home connection is unlocked. And that's increasingly rare. In fact, I read (on this forum I think) that free wifi in general may soon be extinct.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

http://www.globaucal.com/index.php?o...id=30&Itemid=2

So... we do get a 1.7/2.1 Ghz auction, but they're not the same as everywhere else !?

And why oh why can't i order from nokiausa !

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Looks like we might be able to get them via expansys.ca (for $760 :eek:) and we should be able to get true 3G via Wind Mobile when they eventually launch...

More patience is required, it would seem, than I currently have in stock. :(

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

So, order from them with a random shipping price or through a friend in the US with a random border tax or keep waiting for nokia.ca to answer ... aahhhh!

What do we do ? :P

As for wind mobile, i'm getting the feeling that i'm getting screwed all over again:

For those from Québec: Kâlissse!

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

While we wait for Quebecor, Nokia has time to release another model. :(

Maybe I could use EDGE for a while but I don't want to be stuck with it if Nokia makes a new model.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

EDGE sounds good only for ssh/chat though, anyone has experience with SIP over 3G? Could we dump our "normal" gsm cell # and go purely data?

And for those thinking about expansys.ca:

RMN93009 <- this coupon gives you 10.87$ (go figure) off...Only one i tried that worked for me, for what it's worth hehe. I haven't clicked order yet but I'm really thinking about it a bit too hard! :P

I was thinking about shipping from a friend in the states... but with the exchange rate/fees and shipping it adds up to about the same as ordering from expansys.ca :/

Should i wait for NCIX or maybe nokia.ca (which didn't answer my mail yet) to get it?

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Dear Mr. XXXXXX,


Thank you for e-mailing the Nokia Care Contact Center. We are glad that you have chosen the Nokia N810 as your preferred device.


I apologize for the delay in responding to your e-mail message and greatly appreciate your patience.

I appreciate your inquiry in the Nokia N900 device and the possibility of having it in Canada.

With regard to your inquiry about Nokia N900, we would like to let you know that as of the moment the release date of it in Canada is not yet available. Please check our website for further updates.

XXXXXX, this is to let you know that you can only purchased Nokia products from Nokia USA online store if you have a USA credit card and USA address. And also, the warranty will only be applicable in the country that the product is designated in.

For more information about Nokia N900, kindly visit http://maemo.nokia.com.

XXXXXX, I sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused. Nokia appreciates your business and continued support of our products.

If you have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again. To ensure proper handling of your case, kindly continue using the current subject line.

Thank you very much for your email. Have a great day!


Kind regards,
XXXXXX
XXXXXX
XXXXXX


-------------8<--------------

So how come expansys.ca can sell it?
They're bringing stock from the states?

EDIT: Ah what the hell, i ordered from expansys-usa.com as they can ship to canada and right now 650$ USD is better than 750$ CAD, go figure!

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Hrm.... 650 + 21 shipping + 7.5% tax = $721.33 US = $780 CAD

Still cheaper than expansys.ca though. *sigh.

You'd save 80 bucks if you just went across to buy it, which is what I plan to do.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

As a Canadian ordering from an American retailer, there's always a hidden duty cost / brokerage fee that the courier charges you and that isn't factored into the shipping. It is never any less than $20, and it can end up being over $100.

If I remember correctly, expansys.ca factors that into their shipping costs. That's probably why they're more expensive. But I might be wrong. Tell us how it works out.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

You can say that again.

My wife shipped my $200 PC from the US. She paid $50 to ship it and FedEx told us "yeah, brokerage fees are included".

A few days later, FedEx was holding my PC hostage unless I paid them $150 before receipt.

Re: How serious is Nokia about making a dent in the US/Canadian Market?
 

Isn't there a chance Nokia is in some negotiation with the smaller carriers that support the N900 as it is?... Either that or they will really wait for step 5 or 6 to make a USA directed version, and the N900 is still a kind of novelty prototype right now, as are the other tablets. No iPhone killer, just a skirmisher!

The (USA) unpopular phone technology would serve to make only the most dedicated users buy it, just like the lack of phone function has prevented more general users to buy the tablet in the past.