Nokia has certainly gotten things all wrong if they are both dropping package compatibility between different versions and ALSO not providing major release upgrades to older devices. Not caring about binary compatibility works for open source/ free software because everybody can always be running the latest version. Having neither the latest upgrades nor binary compatibility is the most braindead way one can do things. It means a lot of porting between the different devices all the time and zero buildup of available packages.

nope, can't ignore your best phone to date... its like benching your best player and losing.

The support for older Android phones is in stark contrast with the Maemo experience. While I love the N900 the lack of Nokia support means that my next phone will have to be Android.

Such a terrible shame Nokia is letting this beautiful architecture die.

True, but I guess motorola announced an upgrade to 2.1 according to alexreed: that's not a minor update.

Yeah I jumped the gun on this one.. I just remember it *was* getting an update and didn't check my versions. This was my bad.

You still get new apps from the official repositories for your N800? How many and how often? This is surprising seeing how upset so many people on here that had their previous tablets are. I know I didn't touch my N810 from around 8 months from when I last flashed diablo... not a single update appeared in my notification area or HAM.

I disagree on the second part.. Android with even their first product of G1 still sells and still maintains the platform. You're right that it's just over a year, the end of this year would mark 2, since android itself has been on the market but the original phone just hasn't "died". Every day I can refresh the App Market and see new things. This is due to the nature of android being so universal.

The longest player in the game is Apple since it was first (for this specific phone market).. and it is still updating their first device.

The N770 has long since stopped receiving official updates, the N810 was released in 07 and stopped receiving even minor revisions within a year, from diablo (in 08). The G1 I believe got some form of update in January of this year, I just can't seem to find the details on it.

So yes.. I do think they are failing when compared to their US competitors.

I have a N800 and upgraded to the N810 when it was released. This is the first I have heard about a discount on the N810.

Given that Nokia hasn't opened any parts of Maemo 4 in the last year even though Maemo 5 won't work on N8x0, I'd say it's unlikely.

Well, Nokia should've/would've things aside, my pint-of-beer-bet is that Qt 4.6 (a.k.a. PR1.2) *is* the silent official upgrade path for the N900 as theoretically that should mean easy backports from Maemo6 (unless DUI messes things up).

wont die, my guess is whatever they do as far as update or new os, there will be a n900 version.. why cause all the tech in the n900 is new!!! thus meaning the next will most likely have the same tech specs..

Whoa, never mind Nokia ignoring the N900, you lot have already decided to do so, where do I slit my wrists.

Ok, I gotta say a few things...

1st, the G1 is now only getting minor updates and would probably not get those except it's still on the market. The original iPhone and iPhone 3G get updates becuse it's still on the market (3G anyway) and easy to do. Don't kid yourself that it's because Apple 'cares' about customers molre than Nokia. No doubt the N900 will get at least some support as long as it's sold and reasonable to do so also. When it's only avaiable on Ebay and/or too difficult support for almost any device stops.

2nd, Android OS updates are pretty hit-and-miss, both for users and developers. A lot of stuff can and does break. iPhones have had serious update horrors too, despite the Apple gestapo's iron-fisted control. The OTA update of my N900 went perfectly.

3rd, while sure, a Harmatten upgrade would be nice, I really don't much care. Maemo 5 is nice and will still work fine after Maemo 6 and 7 are out. If I can just get bugfixes and maybe even some updates to the basic apps for the next year or 2 - basically the lifetime of such a device, I'm cool with that.

Happily peckin' away on my N900...