Thread: What Will Make MeeGo Succeed
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tzsm98 is offline tzsm98
2010-08-12 , 23:41
Posts: 500 | Thanked: 437 times | Joined on Nov 2009 @ Oklahoma
#69
After reading through the bulk of this thread I am encouraged. What could have rapidly devolved into a "chuck rocks at Nokia for how they have abandonned us" sort of thread it actually has some clear foward looking thinking. Not all the clear thinkers think alike, but that is another reason I love being in this community.

What will make Meego succeed? Limiting my remarks strictly to the telephone end of the OS I ask "What made Symbian60 such an 800 pound gorilla?"

The "Gotta Haves"
1- Consistency across devices
2- Reliability on each device
3- A wide range of price points for devices
4- One click installation of applications
5- Emergency reset procedure
6- Full suite of PC/Mac/Linux tools to manage device and information on it

These, excepting the last point which had only part of that going for it, are what made Symbian60 my UI of choice since I bought a Nokia 6290 in 2007. It is what cemented me as a person who looked at Nokia first, then all others, when considering a handset upgrade. Five of the six requirements are device oriented. The last is external to the hardware but as important as, oh, let's say, antenna design, when it comes to givng the end user the "gee-whiz" experience. Get these six correct and the end user will not be thinking about what is running their phone, they will be using it instead.

I understand the uses of Meego will extend far beyond the smartphone/pda with phone realm. But for it to be at hand and in hand for the average user it has to meet the six items I list above.

Leaving behind the S60 comparison there are other areas where Meego will have to shine to succeed.

Support
I see a lot of mentions of supporting the devices after launch. I see support = new releases of firmware in some people's minds. My 6290 got all the way to v3.xx in firmware and was never heard from again. This was okay because it ran like a top on that firmware.

I think more than wanting support people do not want to have to need support. They want their devices optimised and running smoothly from product #001 to the end of production.

Applications
If you build it they will come. We've seen that over and over again with the Nokia tablets, the iPhone, Android devices, Java, etc. Having Qt as the basis is supposed to make device specific applications easier to create from the "Proto-Application" developed in Qt.

If a clear roadmap of the changes required for specific devices arrives, hopefully before the device pre-order period, then Qt developers will be able to deliver. If there is murkiness as to the correct path to take to make your application device specific then there is going to be a slow walk to having the applications people crave and need.

I'm hoping Meego succeeds. I get a great deal of enjoyment from my N900. It won't last forever. I hope when I get a different device it is an upgrade from the N900, not only in specifications but in OS as well. Meego could be that OS.
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