I'm pretty sure they will - with Symbian dead in the water for up to the next 2 years (see various Symbian Foundation announcements) Maemo is the only remaining live & kicking platform Nokia has left* on it's top-end devices.

And I firmly believe there will be a larger screened, keyboard-less device early next year.

Edit: *Unless Nokia takes the Android pill, which would seem unlikely as Android "wasn't invented here"

Apples current laptops still support hot swapping.

Heat up the soldering iron and swap out the battery.

Nokia has officially denied any Android plans, but not for the reason you point out. Remember that most of Maemo "wasn't invented" by Nokia either, and we are proud of this.

Who needs Android if one can run its apps natively under linux? A hacked kernel might come out that has the modification for maemo.

The smaller screen and the smaller battery are most likely because Nokia wants to make the device smaller (and not the cost aspect, let us see about the price when it becomes available).
High-end Smartphone users expect a device the size of the N97/3GS/Pre . The previous tablets are too large, so Nokia would risk alienating a lot of High-end smartphone fans.

The software platform is new for most phone users, so Nokia probably decided to make the hardware as familiar as possible in order to ease the transition to Maemo.
I think that is smart move.

What I would like to know is if the device has a compass.
I also would like to know if it is an OLED or LCD screen and how well it functions in bright light (I think the nokia 5800 is often hard to use outside).

Maemo has A LOT of advantages over the Palm Pre and Andriod OS's. Maemo comes a lot closer to a full linux desktop operation system. Porting applications to maemo is relatively easy. Android and Pre are either locked, or you miss a lot of libraries.
People that start out with linux will be able to use these skills in Maemo directly and have a lot of powerful tools with relatively basic skills.
What was holding Maemo back was that the N8x0 devices were not powerful enough and that Maemo wasn't mature enough (some buggy software especially in the 2005/2006/2007 versions and a lot of apps breaking with new Maemo versions).
But because of the similarities of Maemo to full GNU/linux desktop environments and the capabilities of the OMAP3 it has to potential to take off real fast and have more apps, more possibilities and more developers than any other mobile platform.

I think that in the end the platform that has most applications available will become the dominant OS in the Smartphone market (that is what happened to the Desktop with MS-DOS and Windows in the late 80's/early 90's). I think Maemo has a REALLY strong position and could become that platform.


I really can't wait to see this device for real!

The indicator that you should be looking at is how many (mid-long term) developers are committed to support that system. read: think they can make money by developing for that system.

Having a large library of app is the result of such support.

You are absolutely right. And I would like to believe that Nokia has thought of this too.
Nokia is betting big on Maemo and the community. So they will definitely work on keeping the developers happy.

If the recent rumours about Nokia's plan to enter the Netbook market are really true, then the case becomes still stronger. It's probably a given that those Netbooks will run Maemo too.

Even after Android 1.5+ and iPhone 3.1+ and all, Maemo+Qt will be the darling of the crowd.

The plans have been laid,
The moves are indicative,
The need is there,
The hunger is there,
It's just now important to keep the developers happy. Please execute it well!

Nokia's next focus probably would be the Ovi store.

I think most users don't know the difference, and an OLED of that size would be expensive. I think they'd rather have a £30 cheaper device than one boasting an OLED screen.

The reason given was that "everyone knows that Symbian is the future for Nokia". In this forum we're having trouble making sense of that reason.

Android = No brand differentiation.