Overall, I am not as concerned about the reduction in screen size as what I think may be the ramifications and inherent compromises of moving Maemo from the comfortable niche it currently resides in to what appears to be a mass market phone device with carrier branding. This transition could be a big win for Nokia and potentially eventually a big win for our community -- although a big Nokia win may or may not mean a big community win.

My usage scenario is that I have a cheap phone and use the N810 for everything else. I need at least one pocketable device that is open linux in the pocket. If it is a phone too that would be acceptable. I also hope to buy in the future a 5 to 7 in linux tablet.

Concerns with the introduction of the phone for the "N900" is the potential cost (I don't have an inexhaustible gadget budget), whether I can get it unlocked, and how tied down it will be to the carrier and the types of services the carrier will try to sell me.

As far as the reduced screen size, this is disapponting; however, in terms of e-book reading I read lots of pooks on my Palm II/II back in the day with their crappy screen so I don't view it as a huge deal. That being said, my close-focusing on my eyes is going, and I would prefer a device I don't have to use glasses for constantly.

The market for this device seems to be the iphone, blackberry, palm-pre, android crowd. If Nokia can successfully enter this market and expand the number of users and developers of Maemo **without** sacrificing the openess and community spirit, I think this is a big win -- even if the initial device is a phone with a 3.5 in display.

If Nokia can maintain its openness, then this N900 device could become what the OpenMoko Freerunner could have been. Although with T-Mobile on board, maybe not.

Also since Nokia seems to be pushing Maemo into the big arena now, it is going to be playing with the "big boys" and will have to be able to hold its own with them. This is a different playing field than the R&D internet tablet niche that Nokia has been playing around in with us.