I think the only people in the US that will ever see these phones are the members of this forum. The other 99.99% of the US will have never heard of it. I had my eye on this phone, but I won't spend more for a phone than I can for a laptop, that's just stupid.

It's just the result of convergence. And if you want to get into it early you have to pay a high price. It's only in the future that prices will drop and convergence gets us to the point where maybe laptops aren't needed anymore or even made.

Do you really think that is probable, laptops not needed or made in the coming future?

I have to say in the few days that i started this thread I have learnt a lot of things. I was an avid Nokia fan for a long time till the 6600 came out to be precise after that Nokia just started going, well nowhere really, there were a lot of players introduced and the market suddenly became very very open.

All things considered you have to understand that Nokia although was pretty much around it never really made a big impact in the last few years, sure the N95 was the talk of the town but that was around the time the iphone was released so all the hype suddenly went luke warm. But now suffice to say things are different and sure the North American market is not Nokia's key party place, they are surely getting there. I think what Nokias strongest position is at this time is that they have a fully functional vertical OS, some thing not a lot of manufacturers can boast about. Sure the Iphone has its own thing, Palm has webOS but how many else. Samsung is still working on a new concept and is rolling out WInmo and android powered devices in the mean time, even the high and mighty Microsoft is going to ditch Winmo in the few years to the run up to project PINK. HTC is well dishing out anything and everything and companies like LG and sonyericcsson have no clue what they are doing(Xperia really!!!), even the once great Motorola has coloquially ridden it high horse on the RAZR and finds itself in a position where they have no design or software prowess anymore.

This is where I think Nokia is going to shine, they know that its all doom and gloom over symbian, I mean sure symbian is good but its only good for low or mid range level devices but with convergence the next big thing, Symbian doesnt stand a chance. Maemo on the other hand is way different in this regard, they have already tested it on other more complex devices and suffice to say it did work, they are porting it now to a mobile phone device, and already people are giving it favourable reviews. Maybe its still early and even though we have not seen a lot of buzz on the more mass marketing segments, I am pretty sure that Nokia is rooting hard for the N900 to succeed otherwise they would have never released the N97 mini, which is a sure shot N series suicide. Its just a matter of time now, I have a feeling the N900 WILL make it.

of course

ask yourself, how many people have large desktop computers anymore? the number is dwindling

eventually we'll all move from laptops to "mobile computers"

Seems that may have been a misunderstanding. See this:

http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/...for-operators/
My feeling is that things are not as pessimistic as kenny seems to think.

IF the battery can last an entire day with moderate/slightly above average usage (on 3G without relying on wifi access) then the N900 will be a definite success.. no doubt!

I think I put the carrier customization rumors to rest awhile back with this:
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/00..._for_maemo.htm

On the laptop vs handheld arguement, its really an ARM vs ATOM/x86 war. The next generation Intel mobile chips will be more competitive, but this will play as big a part as any in how far laptops can go with handhelds coming on strong.

The lack of advertising scares me. I don't know if it's over-confidence or lack of confidence.

I've actually seen/read more about the Chinese Lenovo oPhone than the N900 - well, not until very recently that is. But I'd love to see this "pimped" just right.

I've seen mention of Oprah; she didn't fare too well with the Pontiac G6. In fact, it darn near emasculated that product. And we all know what happened to Pontiac anyway - dead brand now.

The viral vids are cool, but they seem to hit a core target audience that's already connected and thus the N900 isn't that much of a mystery to them. And the earlier commentary about that Maemo 5 isn't prepped to be fully mainstream and Maemo 6 is... it makes me wonder why buy this iteration and just wait for the next, more mainstream version.

In fact, why would anybody buy into this iteration if that's the case?

The whole early adopter stuff in this economy isn't always going to equal success. The N900 has a lot of the right things in place, I'd just love to see its direction a bit more concrete so close to a possible release - mid-October still, right?

Hurry it up Nokia. I want to see what you have planned.