[QUOTE=iJanne;390868]...as a computer or a netbook.

Enter N900 and Maemo 5.

Unlike some say, this is not Nokia's flagship phone. ...N900 is still a developer edition and was never meant to catch this much fire, I guess it surprised Nokia too that it did. Maemo is still at least that one release short of the consumer edition. And while I love the N900, I wouldn't recommend it for casual users. It is not for them. Maemo is not for them yet.

Did Nokia drop the ball with the development of S60? Yes they did...
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Then, the expectations.
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Clearly there are a lot of people here who bought the N900 to replace a smartphone, even the iPhone.
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Nokia is releasing this for the developers and tech-heads, the next round of Maemo was meant for the regular consumer. ..N900 is there to activate the community and to help mature the platform, not yet the end-result.
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Nokia's roadmap clearly states that Maemo 6 is the consumer release. Agreed, that may be late time-wise, but at least they are moving. Maemo 6, I don't think they can afford to miss, but anyone thinking Maemo 5 would release as a final product simply didn't read the big print in my opinion. This manifests itself in things like missing OVI support, missing features, Maemo is still short of the final Qt user-interface etc. This is all public info! QUOTE]



Although I don't want this to happen Nokia may risk dropping the ball on Maemo, too. Why? Paradoxically, because of the unexpected success of the N900, as it reaches out beyond what is the intended audience. Furthermore, Nokia isn't doing too well at the moment so I'm sure there is pressure internally to deliver more profit, and they will be opportunistic to capture the profit potential residing in the N900. There's the usual trade-off between short and long term gain.

I was in a phone store just the other day. They sell phones from all the big suppliers, and with most operating systems. I asked them about the N900. "Nokia had a demo for us. It's the most impressive phone we have ever seen." was the reply from the salesrep, eyes glowing.

If I'm a consumer, I will be impressed by the sales person's comment, and I may not read reviews, or the "public information" but rather go with my impressions from the sales guy, and the media in general, and Nokia's reputation for making solid phones. So I will buy it. I will expect it to do things it doesn't.

Then I discover Nokias new so called Maemo phones aren't what I expected. I will be disappointed, and I will be talking about my disappointment to others. One bad word carries the weight of ten good ones. And probably I will not buy the Maemo6 unit, either.

So the success of the N900 may cause trouble for Nokia. Today customer expectations drive the market more than ever. The competition is stiff, and word of mouth, and hype oounts.

The only way to continuously stay ahead of the game is to supersede customer expectations. Whether these expectations are right or wrong is irrelevant, they are expectations and they will put pressure on Nokia. The main pressure will be to provide the functions that perhaps are not intended to be in Maemo5, that consumers expect on todays "top of the line" phones, whether the Nokia wants the N900 to be seen as such or not.

I may be wrong. With the phone market being the phone market, where e.g. HTC contiously puts out products promising to deliver, and always are missing one or two features, or functionalities, or do them poorly etc, and still are able to prosper.

Nevertheless there is a risk that the success of the N900 will endanger the market perception of Maemo6 devices. I hope Nokia updates the Maemo5 to please consumers and keep faith in their platform. They can't afford to drop the ball this time, or they're dead. Greater companies have crumbled.