What Will Make MeeGo Succeed?

Women and Windows. Simple azat.

The average smartphone user hasn't been fully realized yet. The driving force that has put Android over the top vs. the iPhone has been women.

Traditional smart phone users are road warriors that rely on secure e-mail and company served information and white collar geeks exploring smartphone possibilities. Both groups are mostly men.

The first group uses RIM and this wont change over night. The second group is fickle as all hell and their next desire is hard to predict.

The smartphone as a consumer device will be adopted most by women.

What will attract the trend setters are specific "killer" apps that cater to their needs and the service sectors that they most often work in. After that, they will explore other uses and these alpha women using the product will attract the beta's to it.

Real Estate, Health Care, Education, and Travel are 4 of these sectors that 3rd party apps could reach the alphas.

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A full set of Windows tools should be available to developers and developers who use them exclusively should be groomed as some of the leaders in the MeeGo community.

"Just install Linux on your desktop." should be avoided as the default answer to any problems that they encounter and Windows specific solutions should be developed instead.

Prior to Maemo5 this community was Linux centric. In fact, Maemo was looked at by some as a means to convert Windows users over to the other side... but that was before Apple entered the smartphone picture and introduced a third desktop OS into the mix.

Soon Google will also have it's own desktop OS. Hoping everyone converts to a particular desktop OS because the smartphone it's based on is so dang great would now be a fools mission and resources better spent elsewhere.

One of this communities problems IMHO after Maemo5 dropped was its inability in dealing with the Windows users the N900 attracted.

As MeeGo matures and more devices are offered, alternatives to RIM will develop. Rugged, less expensive devices will attract the blue collar geeks, and the white collar geeks... Who knows? They may then be on to something completely different.

More immediate success will come by attracting new smartphone users. These new users will most likely be women and Windows users as well.