Ooh, now that I like.

tz1 summed up my thoughts on the entry requirements to the "maemo program". It's bloody hard to make debs that work, and hard to get a website up and running on the official pages


Well - ok - maybe not hard - but I don't get it!

Back to the software development analogy - you usually get tiers of people in every dev company. The programmers are just that - programmers. They're given a set of tools, a source control package, rights to build the application on their local PCs, and that's the end of that.

Then you have the admin team - these people sort the source control repos, make sure everything works effectively, they also handle the centralised builds from the source repos and make sure dependancies are all met. They deal with compiling the test builds and releasing them to Joe Public for feedback. They deal with releasing final builds for Joe Public.

Then the QA guys who deal with alpha-testing. They can also compile builds from the source-repos. They also deal with replicating feedback from Joe Public and sending it out to the dev teams.

Behind the dev team and admin team you have the artists - they handle all aspects of web development, any window/dialog box layouts, icons, splashscreens, all assets, etc.

Joe Public deal with beta testing - and provide adequate feedback.

I won't talk about management and sales


That's what's gone on in the few companies that I've worked for. Of course - all of this is different in the OSS world - but why should it be? It may just be that we (devs) just need a succint how-to (step-by-step) on configuring a dev environment that syncs with maemo-garage; and a series of standard template pages to give wiki-like features there. But deep down I feel what's needed is the age old Sesame Street Adage of "co-operation" with those whose experience and knowledge is best suited for the task.

I can see where you're coming from, but Apple has more invested in the iPhone/iPod Touch than Nokia do in the Internet Tablet line. Orders of magnitude more.

And the features of Apple which make the iPhone great (attention to detail etc.) also mean they'll never produce a consumer device as open as the Internet Tablets. And if the Internet Tablet line was higher-profile within Nokia, it'd be running Symbian rather than Linux.

The world is the state it's in, Nokia isn't Apple; Apple isn't Nokia. Companies should be learning from their competitors and trying to add their technological and ecological distinctiveness to their own; but capturing Apple's X-factor is obviously harder than it first appears.

It's much, much easier to lock down a product and aim for a niche than to be all things to all people. And over and over again some people forget that Apple's hype and recognition are disproportionate to their overall market share in many respects. That isn't said as a slam to Apple-- it's simple acknowledgment of a fact. Apple has decided to be successful with a certain segment of society, and has done so-- admirably. Nokia, Microsoft, and others have elected to go after the rest. Nothing "wrong" with either approach, boys and girls. Just different.

And I really wish these threads would be started under the Competitors folder *if* the goal is to laud one...

I don't think that was the goal here; it seems more focused on bashing Nokia than lauding the empire of slightly-used fruit.

Which would mean "Off Topic"? That's where I'd have put it, but we really need a "Rants" forum...

Second!

Agreed!

The problem with NIT's is the apparent rejection of Apple advances and NIH mindset. Like it or not Apple is changing the game and bringing "Internet Tablets" to the masses. This bring both good and bad things for Nokia.

Good:
More companies/websites cognizant of smaller devices
Unlimited data plan is starting to be understood by consumers as a good thing
Consumers expecting web data everywhere and need for tablets

Bad:
The bar for UI design, uniformity, and ease of use have been set VERY high
Many items that consumers will start to take for granted are just not there on the NIT platform
iPhone/Safari sites are often hardcoded with values that are inappropriate for the NIT.

Like it or not Apple is big and popular enough that the entire market for tablets will change because of their products. NIT's need to adapt or be left in the wake.

Well, that's not really new; before iPhone sites showed up, we used desktop sites (like itT) that were often hardcoded with values.
And it's not really something the NITs can be adapted to any way other than local CSS, that I know of.

Now maybe we could go locate some site designers (especially iPhone GMail; you'd think Google, of all people, would not be hardcoding widths...) and ''adapt'' them; that might help.

Then again, if the NIT platform is popular enough, those site designers would be the ones wanting to adapt THEIR sites to NIT platform..