I'm not a device-ophile who can not resist the urge to defile and corrupt young gadgets, I have not taken any vows toward any OS religion, I have never sworn allegiance to any manufacturer, and I do not like Kool-aid so I never drink the stuff.

Market share doesn't interest me because this market simply didn't exist when I bought my first NIT. What did and will always exist for me is a need for timely information delivered in a way that I can use it... period. If the total market was just me so be it. My life has always been about me anyway.

Many of these new devices deliver some of this information quicker, easier, and a hell of a lot better looking than a 770/N800-810/N900 does... but not all of it. The N900 doesn't deliver all that I need but neither does anyone else. The NIT's have nothing in their architectures or OS that was designed to prevent information from being parsed or new applications from being developed.

At first, hardly any of the information that the NIT's consistently delivered was available anywhere else. Now 95% of it is... but still not all of it. That last 5% is new content or delivery schemes that can be configured and parsed on the N900 via a new program or script without the need for a major OS upgrade.

Along with the latest celebrity crotch shot, or newest social networking craze, more and more useful information continues to come via the internet each day we are connected. Long before the first iWeather app hit this "market" we speak of you could pull up and display current local Doppler images on an NIT by simply snatching the source code from a local TV News web site and pasting it into your own locally stored web page. >> YoDoppler <<.

Years before Androids "Traffic Buddy" you could do the same with your local DOT camera images. Plus you had the freedom to display them in any size, refresh rate, and order that you wished. >> YoTraffic <<.

With the freedom of the NIT's browser you could in a matter of minutes cut and paste together HTML to display relevant info that you need for a special event or unique reference requirement, and then bring it with you with out all the adverts and connection overhead that a commercial web page has... >> This week-ends itinerary <<

With each web service that becomes available it is usually just a matter of days before a community member finds a way to use and display this information on a NIT.

Along with apps that use Google Street view, satellite imagery, RSS feeds and such the most recent example I can think of is a Pandora client that does it all with out ads and without restrictions.

My wife uses an Android but even so, she can not load and store that itinerary page I linked to locally so she has access to it without a connection. When a new Google service becomes available, she may not be able to fully use it without upgrading her OS first... and that requires root access.

She has had this new iDEN Android month or two since just before it's public release and root is still not publicly available. When the secrets to this model are revealed (a pirated copy of Motorola's latest radio service software or the boot loader for the first maintenance release is needed ), the root process for many will involve visiting dubious web sites, following bogus links, downloading nefarious apps, and following instructions posted by a speed freak on the third day of his most recent crank run.

On the other hand, the method used by most N900 owners to gain root is an app that is featured on this communities main page. It was made available to all by a then 16 year old lad from E. London who just applied what he learned to the task at hand. It does not require a special decoder ring or any pagan chants to unseen gods. Support for its use was made freely available on this forum weeks before the N900's public release.

However, I fear the N900 was the first and last of these, more open then most, cell phone devices. It is no secret that Nokia needs the N. American market to survive. Kudos to them for first taking the road free of service provider influence on how and what content is available on a device. At the time decisions to move were made there were only a few ways available to do this if they wanted to win the hearts and minds of US consumers.

They could try to influence the FCC and its policies that allowed this tight service provider control or go in the back door and provide a means to connect that didn't require a dang service provider in the first place. 4 or 5 years ago the promise of ambiguous WiFi access in the US was just months away. Many major cities had signed contracts in hand to blanket their areas with coverage.

For many reasons both technical and economical, this blanket coverage didn't happen. If it had, I'm sure we would be on Maemo 8 or 9.0 by now and MeeGo would still be what a three year old says when they wet themselves...
Meanwhile, Google did end up influencing the FCC by aggressively bidding on new spectrum at auction. This got the service providers attention and they agreed to give Google a provisional seat at the big table. It looks like Google won this one because customer demand for Android could end up calling the shots for most of these players.

Nokia also took a half hearted stab at WiMAX, but that looked to many like Maemo product development was going to end up being controlled by the deployment schedules of, you guessed it, a couple of US service providers. Sprint pissed away an excellent opportunity for both companies by dragging its feet with WiMax.

Nokia is now paying the price for these early faith based gambles. My only disappointment is that they could have also gained a bigger foot print in the North American market by acquiring Motorola's consumer products division when it was available at fire sale prices a couple of years ago. This would have opened the door to US service providers but it would have required a clear vision and strong leadership by Nokia as Motorola's was pretty dang fuzzy at the time.

If my world wasn't all about me I would have to give Nokia points for taking this road in the first place. No one else did and manufacturers like Motorola were paying to much to the the piper for the song that US service providers were then playing. Now that Google is in, the battle may be won with servers. As Nokia is finding out with OVI, they have a lot of catching up to do.