-1 for a canadian version. Canada's telecoms, CRTC, and/or Government need to get their collective acts together so that Canada can join 20th century telecommunications. Our prices are too high, and our services too limited.

}:^(~

Apple certainly followed through the iPhone's release with a bit more than just a press release. We'll just have to wait and see Nokia's release programme.

The US is a tough nut to crack. Though I would love to have a highly-subsidized N900 on a top-end carrier, it appears that we may get a grudging launch on the distant fourth-place T-Mobile sometime in the future. I haven't seen all the reasons in one place, so I'll take a crack at it:

--The smartphone market is fragmented (CDMA/GSM) and has a very strong incumbent (iPhone) on the best GSM carrier. AT&T has its hands full selling iPhones. Even if the subsidized N900 price could match the iPhone 3G (and it looks like it won't), why should AT&T bother training staff and customer support to service a competitor to its strongest product? And where's Nokia's incentive to build a CDMA variant with LTE on the horizon? So, T-Mob is the only possible US market for the N900, and their weak 3G network and poor US coverage is a hindrance to adoption.

--US carriers are used to companies like RIM who will cripple devices to address carrier whim (e.g., GPS on Verizon Blackberries, which has been available for years and only uncrippled a few months ago, because Verizon wanted to make $10/month from subscribers to use their terrible GPS software.) Nokia has said that they aren't going to customize (read "cripple") the N900 for carriers, and Maemo makes it easy to circumvent any customization, so this device is a risk for carriers, who fear that their 3g nets will be swamped with customers streaming flash video.

--The N900 is a high-end device for people who are willing to master some complexity in return for a really impressive list of features. My guess is that a fair number of this relatively small target market (those who want the features and have the money) are already committed to another smartphone. Other smartphone manufacturers, like Apple and RIM, are focusing on a much larger market: those who fear the complexity of the phone but want simple features. Your mom does not want a N900, she wants an iPhone or Blackberry Pearl, and your mom is where the growth is in this market.

So because T-mobile is the 4th largest US telly carrier, T-mobile users shouldn't get any Nokia love? The last time a nokia smartphone that was compatible with T-mobile was the nokia 6600 in 2003! I think its time t-mobile users have an option that isn't on EDGE. Don't worry--Nokia isn't crazy they will not leave out At&t and everyone else that uses the 850 band, I'm sure the next maemo phone will be available to you guys and another nokia smartphone won't be compatible with T-mobile again for ANOTHER 6 years.

co-sign im tired of hearing about how horrible tmobile is everyone have different experiences.

Everyone that I know who who had T-mobile had terrible reception problems. They actually had to walk out of their homes and down the street to make a call!

Not where I'm at. T-Mo has the best voice coverage of all providers here. Veri$on has the largest 3G area, AT&T 2nd, Sprint 3rd, T-Mo 4th, but T-Mo's 3G area is now nearly as large as Sprint's and may soon surpass it. The various coverage maps are a kind of a joke, not very accurate at all.

T-Mo 3G is usually fast, no doubt partly due to the fact they have the newest 3G network equipment, all 3.5 service, no old 3.0 service like AT&T. I've used both T-Mo and Veri$on 3G extensively on the road (T-Mo for a G1, Veri$on for a laptop) and both are good, but Veri$on is really a pain to deal with. Had AT&T for a while on the laptop but it just was too slow and unreliable.

Sprint is the only one I really haven't had much experience with. But Kansas City is their World Headquarters, yet the service area is poorly covered. That's enough of a hint to me of their abilities.

T-mobile reception isn't bad in my city, its att that worse here.

Oh, I don't disagree -- it is a tough nut to crack. You have blackberry which is entrenched in the business, iphone which is entrenched in well a lot of areas, and android in the geeks. Which goes back to my question, have they written off the market this time around or are they actually planning on fighting for it? This version of the phone really is targeting the Euro/Asia/African markets; TMO here does support the same freqs (since they are international) so they are releasing it here (hey why turn down free money); but this version of the phone is not really a NA phone.


AT&T, they are getting a Palm & Andriod phones; they aren't going to sit by and let the possible "next" best thing go by even if it cuts into their iphone market, they want as many subscribers as they can get, not to sell phones. Otherwise they wouldn't be selling the high end Blackberry, Android or getting Palms if they were so "Worried" about the iphone market. Besides odds are very high that Verizon will have a iphone in 2010. Apple wants to sell the iphone, they would be foolish now that they are entrenched in the market not to target the other 60% of the market. The biggest reason is that Nokia probably didn't offer a "exclusive" for 6 months (or more) and AT&T isn't going to go "market" something they can't use to promote themselves.

A LTE phone probably should be in Step 5. LTE isn't here and really won't be for a (long) while, knowing how slow all the carriers are in the NA, I wouldn't be surprised by the time they have a N1200 phone we might have decent LTE coverage. As it is TMO doesn't even have good 3G coverage.

As for CDMA, with 60% of the NA market being CDMA, that alone should be the incentive to build a CDMA version. I can take a CDMA phone from Sprint to Verizon to US Cellular, to Bell Canada and it will work. So if I bought one from the Nokia Store, I could use it on any CDMA carrier in NA. Unlike GSM, CDMA afaik has the same freqs on all the carriers. So you only have to make 1 phone to hit over 60% of the market in the NA.


I fully understand this -- and it wouldn't surprise me if this is why TMO hasn't come forward and said we have it. Their 3g network sucks and they don't want to have the same network growth issues at&t had, until they can build it -- I understand they are doing a build out of their 3g network but the timing isn't right for them. They don't want more bad press on how their network sucks. But, for Nokia; to change the game in NA they have to hit a majority of NA carriers not hit a carrier that isn't even going to carry it. Hence my question are they planning on sitting in NA or are they actually planning on trying to market it here.

I would totally disagree on this point. If the N900 is as simple as the videos I've seen; then my Mom (and your mom) should want it. Now I might want it because I can do a lot more with it then they could. But the ability the N900 brings to the normal user and business user is pretty high and really goes beyond the competition.

Nathan

TMO Coverage:
Please note 3G coverage on the TMO is very hit or miss. If you have it in your area then it is good (they some of the best & newest equipment). If you are not in an area it is way worse than most carriers. The big problem is they don't have a lot of 3g areas yet (rapidly deploying though). AT&T blankets the US, but is overloaded; that is their problem.

Actually pretty much any of the european model phones support TMO. TMO is international and their carrier in the US is using the same freqs as those in Europe/Asia/Africa/etc... That is really the reason why the N900 has those freqs -- its because this phone was never targeted for the NA area -- but the rest of the world where their customer base is larger. Nokia has no presence really in the US. Go to any phone store and you see primarily LG, Samsung, Moto, HTC. Maybe (if your lucky) 1 model of Nokia... In this regard because they stopped doing things in NA years ago -- they are actually "being smart", since targetting Euro/Asia/Africa is the largest slice of the "whole" pie.

I put a lot of thought into my original question and I think I have a pretty good understanding of the whole dynamics. I made a couple assumptions "before" NW09 that made me believe that they were going to target NA. But now based on what I saw & read about at NW09 -- I now believe those assumptions are wrong. So, rather than "assume" that they are going after NA (like I did). I wanted to see if what I believe now and what I am seeing is true.

I understand Maemo team has finally became a primary "group" inside Nokia, which gives them a lot better resources -- and before that point they had to target probably the largest market they could with one design. And I can't fault them for choosing the "largest" market they could. But my question pertains to now that they have resources; are they planning on going after NA this time around or are they going to continue to abandon the NA market.

It should be a simple Question for Quim/Peter to answer. I didn't ask them for anything besides if they are working on attacking the NA market < or > 6 month. My current theory now is that it is > 6 months, and I really "hope" I'm wrong.

Nathan.