Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

Looking at the numbers, Nokia sells about 40 - 50% of all smartphones with about 15 - 20 million smartphones sold per quarter.

Android had something like 3% of the smartphone market in the last quarter, so it's there but it's a much smaller number of sales.

Putting it simply, if just one in ten Nokia smartphones sold next quarter is an N900, then Maemo would already be outselling Android (assuming sales shares stay as they are now in the short term).

One in ten Nokia smartphones isn't as unrealistic as it sounds, the Nokia 5800 (the first touchscreen S60 device) sells about 3 million a quarter so it makes up about one in five Nokia smartphone sales. The N900 would have to sell about half as well as the 5800 to reach one in ten.

Even if it didn't reach such sales figures, the N900 is probably just the start and should be joined by other Maemo models next year with varying specs and prices. It's conceivable that Maemo would eventually take over the Nseries range which would mean one in three Nokia smartphones.

Is there any other computing device that comes with Linux preinstalled which sells in anything close to these numbers?

(A year ago I would have mentioned Asus and Acer but they seem to have gone over entirely to Windows.)

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

Most of linux-out-of-the-factory machines sold are embedded devices (set-top boxes, routers, Tivo, DVR, etc), so it depends whether you count those or not.

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

it will be a big seller for nokia, why? because most of the s60 users (myself inc.) wants it lol, maemo here we come :D

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

Yes the regular Nokia phones are quite limited as concerns other features than phone, contacts and a few more. I will stay on the fence for a while though. The E51 works fine and I use the N810 as a portable web browsing device mostly at home. So until one of the two dies I am quite happy.

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

I seriously doubt it. Between GPS units, Tivos, all sorts of embedded devices, netbooks and desktop PC rollouts, there is a lot of competition for #1 linux device, which is a very good thing!

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

Fair enough on the embedded thing, maybe I should have said "best-selling Linux computer", with a computer being something you can install apps on.

I don't know if netbooks and PCs are being sold with Linux any more though... :-( I can't find any shops which sell Linux PCs any more, everything from netbooks to desktops seem to be Windows or Macintosh.

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

Dell still sells ubuntu netbooks and laptops.

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

That hardly counts. It's trivial on x86. I could pre-load the distro of choice, could even install OSX on a random laptop, or multi-boot for that matter. Of course, for some reason it's not a popular strategy. Windows is just that hard of a habit to break, I guess. PDAs, NASes and other more exotic hardware is where I think the Linux factor means something. Of course any hardware that doesn't have a BSoD is appreciated.

Re: Could the N900 become the best-selling Linux device in the world?
 

Possibly, but the Linux kernel is only one part of the whole Maemo ecosystem.