I was pretty about that too.

First of all how much do you think the Apple tablet will sell for ???

Second, honestly anyone who doesn't know what the N900 wouldn't probably be looking a tablet in the first place

Finally from a financial standpoint again anyone in the market for a internet tablet wouldn't mind spending for a N900 (hence you, me, and everyone here) and as for parents buying their kids (why in hell, IDK) internet tablets then all they have to do is buy o-n-e device instead of two or three (if you count the 5MP camera) which I am sure they would appreciate and will be cheaper.

IMHO You are right though about people thinking the N900 is just another phone, but from business point of view that would be good cuz they are doubling their demographics.

In summary: "So what"

It is just a gadget - it either fits your requirements or it doesn't. It is either marketed in a way that makes you want to purchase it or it isn't. It is priced reasonably for you or it isn't.

Make your decision and move on.

I haven't ever hear anybody use tablet and ipod touch together. I haven't either seen any more interest with the Android tablets than with the old Nokia tablets, if even that.
I understand that if any forum just this might not agree, but imo phone is clearly the device that will bring all the gadgets together and maybe even a bit more. I guess Nokia could try PMP market that's mostly controlled by ipod, but that would fragment Nokia's portfolio even more when they should concenrate more about making all those other gadgets obsolete. Afterall they are world largest camera and MP3 player manufacturer

The big Apple tablet may sell for a lot, but Amazon had the new 8gb touch on sale for $150. How does that compare to the price of the N900?

Saying the touch is not a tablet because of its "stripped down browser" is either just semantics or just stupid. People use it to surf the web, get info and entertainment off the internet, read e-books, etc.

tissot, your idea of Nokia "making the other gadgets obsolete" is proved silly (at least in this era) by the fact that the late-comer touch is outselling the iPhone.

Not everybody needs an 8-cylinder SUV; plenty of people are satisfied with a little passenger car.

There is a market for people who want a form factor like the N8x0. The cell radio add a big premium to the price of smartphone. So the N900 w/o a SIM card is really an option. I hope Nokia doesn't leave the folks want a N9x0 Internet Tablet out in the cold.

This doesn't do the following:

1. bring the price down (you still pay $200 for the radios you don't use)
2. make the screen larger (the decrease in size from the predecessors was likely in order to make N900 more phone-like).
3. avoid the tons of disappointed with the phone functionality users.

IMO, all and every flaw, lack of functionality, drawback in the N900 is solely and entirely caused by the fact it was surgically reassigned to be a cell phone rather than the next generation NIT as we had hoped it to be.

Having a cheaper tablet/media device with the same OS would increase the user base and bring more developers, as it did for Apple, with practically zero investment in development.

I agree, I would have preferred the n900 to have kept a more similar form factor to the n810, but primarily to support a larger battery, bigger screen, and better kickstand.

And I do think it would be beneficial to market the n900 sans cell radios at a cheaper price point, or an updated freemantle capable 810 at a cheaper price point.


I still would have wanted mine with the cell radios though.


Yes the n900 is nearly twice as expensive as an iPod Touch.

But an iPod Touch isn't anywhere near the tablet that the n900 is, not even going into flash support (which could be seen as a feature or a bug depending on how you look at it)

iPod Touch can't run more than one app at a time, and good luck doing voip on it. I don't know what IM protocols are supported on the Touch's OS, but I seriously doubt the support is as wide as the n900.

I'd argue that most of the people in the market for an iPod Touch aren't looking for a tablet of sorts, but more a music/video/game device, with web browsing as a bonus.

None of NIT's have been particularly stellar at this task out of the box, and this has been Apple's strongest market segment for years.

So yeah, not to surprising that the iPod Touch sells better as a toy than the n900.

It doesn't take a Maemo fanboy to prefer the n900 over the iPod Touch, just a fan of openness or open source in general, or someone looking for more than a locked down media player.

The biggest impediment I see mentioned to using the n900 more like the old NIT's is the lack of bluetooth dun client support. Yes this is lame.

Can you tether an iPod Touch over bluetooth?

The N900 has 32GB of memory, so you have to at least go up to $299, which is how much the 32GB Touch costs. Add in the camera and the hardware keyboard the Touch doesn't have and an OS that has a lot of freedom to the user, I think the pricepoint is still reasonable for a new product.

Then there are the sales expectations. Apple probably can afford a smaller price margin because of the volume that they sell. I doubt any tablet that Nokia would sell would approach that volume, therefore needing a higher price. Certainly, many of the previous gen tablets ended up getting heavily discounted at the end of their lifecycle. I had many opportunities to pick up a cheap 800 or 810 on Buy.com in the past.

If I were Nokia, I would make a N900 tablet edition without the cell radios (if it really does reduce the price by $200). Even better if they use a form factor similar to the N810 with a larger screen, but leave Maemo 5 as is. That would make development easy. Perhaps even dual SD card slots with the more space without the cell radios.

I would also make a cheaper N900 mini version like the N97 mini, at a cheaper price for those who can't afford the normal version.

Additionally, once the main bugs are sorted out, I would make a version of the N900 without the keyboard for those who don't like that. Perhaps reducing the camera if it helps to make a slimmer form factor, although if there is no difference I would leave the 5MP camera there.

This shouldn't be too difficult to make, and the same OS would be on all versions. Any of them without a SIM card would behave just like the N900 does without a SIM card (ie. no phone settings).

Perhaps there could be other versions with very little storage or smaller storage options with lower price tags, eg. 2gb, 8gb, 16gb. Perhaps that may only be reserved for the Mini variations (perhaps in other colours such as pink to attract other customers... I know women who buy a phone just because it's pink, it's true!).

The point isn't the form or the OS... the point is connectivity. Nokia started us on this journey with tag lines like "Web in your pocket", "Walk and Web", etc.

GK's proposition is solid. Nokia abandoned the tablet market. Period, end of report.

Many of us have been demonstrating the usefulness of having a pocket browser that can take advantage of local WiFi connections. We have shown these capabilities to friends and colleagues over the past 2 or 3 years with our 770, N800, and N810's.

At my brothers house this Christmas we had a mini geek-a-thon. My N900, a neighbor's Droid, a brother in-law's G1, and my sister in-law's iPhone 3G. (Most were first turned on to what a "smartphone" could do for them by using one my tablets over the past two Christmases BTW.).

To level the playing field we were using my brothers WiFi. All could perform most of the tasks that were called out and all believed we had won. The tasks were simple, like tell me what tomorrows weather will be like in Hong Kong, or what did GE stock close at and what was its 2 year high and low. All mundane and all sometimes determined by knowing where to look and having a web shortcut on the main page.

The N900 was the overall winner because it could connect quickly to random, flash intensive sites that the pre-teen children called out. The teens only seemed to be interested in how cool they looked while texting. The N900 lost that one , but regained ground with them when they realized they were able to show everyone how their actual Facebook pages looked on the N900.

But the real winner as far as price/features/value was concerned was when my sister pulled out her iPod touch. It couldn't do flash and it pretty much was just a platform for apps she downloads but, she has an app for just about everything she needs.
She is a senior flight attendant on the North/South American leg of a Major US airline. She uses a small Nokia world phone for most communication but uses the touch for everything else including Skype. Between planes, airports, and hotels, a WiFi connection is usually always available to her.