Exactly! Why the heck would they use some stupid wifi manager when the true joy in life comes from manually configuring WPA_SUPPLICANT on your phone?!

...just kidding - but the problem is that I would hazard a guess that most of our current developers like Maemo because you can just open up a shell and hack on your phone, but most of the intended users couldn't care less. I have to wonder how Nokia plans to balance those needs; if they made using a shell near-impossible, the phone would lose most of its appeal to me, and many others in the community, but since we aren't the majority of their market, they can't exactly tailor it us either.
Regarding this design... **please no!!** I know some people swear by on-screen keyboards, but IMO they are not a replacement for a good hardware keyboard. That said, given their announced intent to switch the whole N-Series lineup to Maemo in the future, I'd fully support keyboard-less models as well, but I seriously hope they don't do that while they still only have only one model in active production. Specifically, I hope Nokia doesn't try anything crazy until after Maemo is reasonably well-established (then again, Maemo itself is a bit crazy, albeit in a good way :P)

I think the last thing Nokia wants for their Maemo 6 device is for it to be perceived as weird and that keyboard would definitely be weird. It would be of no benefit for someone who was used to QWERTY or T9 and unlike Dvorak keyboards which claimed to be faster to use than QWERTY, there would be no speed advantage.

I would not rule out a T9 slider (although I wouldn't want one) or a QWERTY portrait slider a la the Palm Pre but I think your idea is a non-starter.

Hell no!

That is an absolutely horrendous device.

My hope for the next gen is n900 looks with 4in. screen, tegra2, 1024 x 600 screen res, 5 row keyboard, hdmi out, and put a damn mouse nipple/joystick on there somewhere for us gamers, damn

That's either some amateur drawing or some no-name chinese tablet. I doubt that any self-respecting phone manufacturer would even consider this design.

No, complete keyboard is a must. If N900 didn't have it i had not bought it. Used to have E90 before.

Using ssh client and with instant messaging and mail, keyboard can't be missed.

I don't think it's near as bad as some are saying, and FYI there are occasions where a patent like this is taken out simply to cover a market as broadly as possible. So, sure, this could easily be a major phone manufacturer. Wish the OP had included that info.

Besides, there was a time when people had to get used to typewriters... phone pads... calculators...

Well, tried the application number on the picture to the US Patent office search and it did show the patent MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL WITH A SINGLE ROW KEYPAD with assignee NOKIA CORPORATION. So clearly it is Nokia applying for it and to me it seems fine idea.

Personally I'd rather have full keyboard, but for some people that will probably be nice option, and it would be nice to have different Maemo devices for different people and purposes, so I'm all for it!

It actually looks similar to the Sony eReader I bought for wife. That one has number buttons at the side as well.

That 'keyboard' (keyrow?) looks extraordinarily cumbersome to use, even harder than the standard square 12-key layout.
If that really is the next incarnation of maemo, i'll be hoping maemo6 works on the n900

ugly piece of Shhhiittt.... Will never buy it if that is what it looks like lol.. Without the keyboard at all would be nicer