Thread: ...a bit dangerous
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2009-11-08 , 22:44
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#8
Originally Posted by Peet View Post
Couple of other interesting quotes from Dr Jääksi's blog entry:





Hmmm. Nokia device policy (only one top end model; no proliferation in sight) is certainly aimed at keeping their Maemo more or less exclusive. Just maybe licensing has something to do with it as well.

Since my N800 was obsoleted by the "dangerous" Maemo platform (and later its screen became useless for text or images) I've spent more time following the mainstream tech media rather than fanboying around Nokia, but I've learned enough of this Maemo 5 to know that it's not the danger here. Nokia's strategy is.

There are, to put it simply, tech fanatics (incl. us), "normal folks" and then the technophobes.

Nokia's reaching a fraction of the first category with their Maemo (+ N900) strategy and very few users in the other two. Symbian still has some staying power in the other two categories (largely thanks to their massive channel), but that is vanishing fast, especially in the middle category.

Meanwhile Android is almost everywhere, whether you like it or not. Large number of different devices is coming out with it, there's competition, media and developer mindshare, decent service offerings from Google and support for many others, no apparent planned obsolescense for the devices...

Now, I don't even follow Android, but I can't help seeing new device reviews and general excitement or promise thereof... while Maemo news are few, far between and often smell of Nokia's corporate involvement.

So, shoot me for losing my early excitement about Maemo. I know it's more open in some ways, but how does it improve my life (unless I buy the specific Nokia device about to ship later this month, obsoleted by Maemo 6?)?

Nokia's lost this early adopter (and like many others like me, I do sometimes influence the decisions of those around me) and while their minitablet phone is bound to find new customers I still feel that Nokia control and exclusivity over the Maemo platform is indeed a bit dangerous game to play.

Phones are indeed computers, but what matters is how you deliver a good user experience to as many people as possible and not just to the daredevil types.

This soap box is slippery...
Slippery soap boxes are dangerous...

My N800 and N810 are far from obsolete and even more uses will be found because of Maemo5.

Interestingly I spent Saturday night around a bonfire with friends sampling beers and wines, catching up, and generally enjoying the cool starlit, November night... a tradition of sorts in the northeast and northwest of North America.

I set down my n810 and fired up the latest version of YouAmp and had instant access to over 1200 songs that I keep on the tablet. This was a multi-generation happening so the uncles and aunts (my group) were satisfied with one collection I have of the 885 all time favorites of a local radio station, WXPN @ 88.5. I also have some more popular music that satisfied the nieces and nephews who ranged in age from 7 to 17.


Every one was quite intrigued with the search feature of YouAmp and that's what we used to control play back... If they didn't like the songs in queue all they had to do was enter a single word search term to generate a completely different list. That list would play until someone would remember another tune that the wanted to hear. They would then enter only as much info in the search that they needed until the song they wanted showed up, along with anything else that somehow also matched that criteria. They selected their song and the remaining songs on the new list would play after their song was finished. This went on for over four hours


There was remarks that the iPod could do this and the iPhone could do that but in the final analysis it was the N810 that came out of someones pocket, was set upon a log, and was ready to play with no wires, external speakers, or external power supply.

3 years ago the N800 that I paid $400 for would never have left my pocket. Because of the impending release of Maemo5, I was able to pick up an N810 for $150.
When I told folks that the N800 could be had for $50 bucks less than that, light bulbs went off over some heads . At that price buying one for a single purpose would not be outrageous and the thing is... this is just one of the single purposes that the tablets are very good with.

My point with all this is what "Market" are they loosing traction in?
Last edited by YoDude; 2009-11-08 at 23:05. Reason: hear for here
 

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