You know... performance is brought up time and time again as a positive; however I hope the apps come forward and have the things that people want.

Video chat? Not shown so far - Skype won't have it. Location aware? It did make it, it seems... but will all apps (or most) be location aware?

Sorta takes me back to BeOS. 64-bit file system journaling, made for media from the ground up, made the PowerPC 604 actually scream whereas nothing else really did.

And yet, the fact it had no compelling apps for it other than the ones that came from BeOS and Gobi... it faltered. Well that and a healthy dose of Apple switching directions to BSD/NextStep surprising BeOS... but that aside.

It was pretty damn superior to everything out at the time, yet it had no apps that compelled people to get it, use it. And that's a potential problem I see with the N900. Only because I see how the N810 went down.

Not a lot of apps were updated. Not a lot of commercial apps came out for it. And as it stands, the community has yet to create a video chat app - outside of aMSN - that really was reliable enough for me to champion.

Now... with this talk about the iPhone, let me say this as an original iPhone and iPhone 3G owner... the 3GS should be seen by Nokia as a way to really stick it to the competition. The 3GS is a money grab. It's a disappointment because the rumors were better than the reality. Simply put, Apple got lazy. There could have been so much more potential - even a new look... and all of it centered around a slightly faster processor, a slightly better OS... but same look, perhaps a rather usable compass... and full 3D specs that will cause a slight rift in a bit (look for 3GS only games in a bit).

Now... with that said. the iPhone has fun, funky, stupid and some are downright deplorable. But with the advertisements stating "there's an app for this/that"... Apple is proving that marketing can make more strides than sheer technical awesomeness. A situation where the mediocre will come out on top.

Why? All of the bickering about "Which shell will it have?" or "Why isn't there a pipe key on the keyboard?" or even "Can I compile GCC on it?" (all of these are hyperboles, so treat them as such) don't exactly endear this platform to the masses.

And the masses, if they come... will ensure that commercial apps, or even support from those initial commercial apps (Skype, Gizmo, RTComm, Pidgin, et al) will continue and the better platform is not left behind.

I'm sure Nokia has this covered. But as far as it goes... seeing how the technically better product doesn't always mean a sure-win... I'm officially concerned. Very concerned.

And the majority of this site; forgive me... y'all are pretty damn niche for the most part. OpenMoko didn't survive due to its niche market. Zaurus (outside of Japan) had only a niche market... and it didn't survive. The aforementioned BeOS... while technically superior and it took some 10 years for some things to show up in other competing systems... it died too.

The 3GS release allowed the N900 to gain ground. I hope - no... I think that Nokia will take advantage of it. But as it stands, the marketing needs to be better than it ever was on the N810/N800. Which sounds simple - it's a phone now.

But it's not. A Linux based OS without any prior iterations of apps that were truly compelling to those outside of this community is a steep hill to climb.

Sorry for this long "rant", just came from the most interesting conversation with a bunch of commercial (read: non-technical) iPhone owners. I whipped out my N810... and confused the living hell out of them. It just... well, in their words "If that was also in a phone, I'd want it. But it'd take a bit of an investment to learn it fully..."

And that, my friends... is a concern of mine. The iPhone "just works"... sure it's locked down, Apple keeps it way too damn closed. But it "works". I don't have to add Application Catalogs for it. Not that I personally don't mind, but to see enthusiasm go to sheer terror in a few moments once they had to open up a terminal or installing something might include more than two steps.

I feel better with that out. Feel free to flame me. I just hope Nokia does well... and hopefully, they're listening.