I'm a new user of the N900 (or any nokia products) and i'm very pleased with what i got - definitely worth the investment! I've been looking for something like this for a long time!

that being said, i'm a bit disappointed with the amount of apps the N900 has available. I know that this is not an iphone and i didn't buy this as an iphone replacement, but where is the 'active community' of developers that people seem to tout about maemo? That Nokia 'marketed' this product as a tablet with phone capabilities seems like it should have more range in terms of what it's able to do.

I'm a linux user and have no qualms with the N900 or the OS - i just don't like all the talk about the active community of users that are working on new apps and patches when it almost seems nonexistent.

gps seems to be a constant problem for many users (i myself have not been able to test this since my current work places me out in the middle of nowhere south korea and can't get a signal to save my life, with wifi or in an open field), and the lack of MMS support (which I don't use, but it doesn't mean Nokia should slack off on its development) makes me wonder if nokia really cared about the N900 at all or if the N900 is just a phase of product testing for the next release. I'll be very disappointed if maemo 6 or some equivalent update is not released for maemo5 and support is phased out altogether on the new HW release.

My question is then: when is maemo5 going to really pick up? One thing i'd like to see is google docs OFFLINE support. I'm tempted to learn app programming just to see what I can really do with this amazing device!

I want to iterate that i'm happy with my N900! Just would like to see a bigger support from Nokia's part! it seems like they're giving a very much hands-off 'see how it goes' approach!

Hmm... With little search one can find a thing like this.

actually.. if u search different threads here.. ull find a lot of devs that are working now... u can even test the apps... yes, they are not yet official.. but that only means that someone is working and we'll have more apps soon..

Apps? For a device that's been out just two months, there are currently 135 apps here, tested, stable and community approved.

And there's currently over a thousand in development in the garage.

For an OS so young, I'd say that's pretty good.

I'm not sure what's happening with GPS - though I believe sygic are bringing something paid in soon, and there are several apps in extras assisting location. As for MMS, fMMS is well under development. If you are willing to use something from 'extras-devel' you can be part of the testing. I don't think we have any MMS parameters for South Korea.

What else were you looking for?

Enable extras-testing and help by testing the long queue of apps waiting for reviews and thumbs up/downs.

WOW!!! iphone has 100.000 at the moment... how is nokia going to be of any competition?

And if some guys are making some small aps wont make any difference. we need big apps and games.

Games that "WOW" people of their feet. not the half glitching, bricking apps there are now at the moment.

I am highly disapointed in the apps and games that are officially released at the moment. The only thing we got is half woring games that are over 10 years old, like doom, redalert 1 and dukenukem. Its nice! it really is... but no one i show these games on my n900 has something like WOW! Only thing i hear is. the iphone has a far better looking shooters. look this link http://hexryde.com/2009/05/top-5-iphone-shooters/

I hate iphone i really do (maybe im yealous) but on that website there are some insane good looking shooters! and when i see my duke nukem. then im getting really sad!

Iphone has been around for over three years. When it was first launched it had zero apps. You might want to remember that.

Additionally, many of those iphone 'apps' are either deeply localised (check the score for a particular school sports team), ringtones, video and books or things that Maemo does natively though the browser (like banking log-in).

I'm not saying we don't need more, creative, Wow apps, but I think you're being a little unfair. In the end, it's not all about the numbers. Or maybe it is for you? You want to be able to say "My app store has thousands of apps" whether or not they're any use?

@RevdKathy, no i dont want 100.000 apps. Im sick and tired of reading mobile news everyday, and reading another iphone app has been released to decide wich cloths to wear today.

i agree that the n900 is still young and needs some time to grow. But im just so scared that the n900 in one year still has no good support by big devellopers. Why? because i think most people are not buying this phone. This means the "Geeks" (if i may call it that way) only by this phone. and one thing i learned is, the bigger the amount of custommers the more support and potential there will be. Nokia keeps saying in holland that it cant keep up the amount of n900's because of the demand. but for as far as i know almost no one is walking around with this thing. so either nokia is lying and letting people believe they cant keep up the production. Or everyone is hinding their n900.

I really want the n900 to be a succes! I love the device. And its awsome that so many people are voluntairly (dont know how to write that word) making all these apps widgets and games for free.

But for as far as my friends and related they dont care about apps in progress and apps that still can brick your n900. they want loads of apps. And there fore everyone chooses the iphone. (last time i used that word).

If some great games would pop up with a big hype like world of warcraft... (example) ... just games that have never been seen before on a phone. that would be really awsome. people would start talking about it. everyone would want to buy the device. I really thing nokia doesn't spend enough money on these things, but are very important for the succes of a device.

I was just thinking how awsome it would be to have a game like little big planet on the n900... a game that you can play alone or with friends. where you can make your own maps, put them online and share it with others. chatting with eachother adding friends. invite people to play with them online. This is all sooo damn possible on the n900. it something like this should really be available on the n900.

The reasons i think N-gage is stopping to exist right now is because the lack of perfection of the app and the usability. and the lack of good games.

There should be an app where you can add your friends. see them online invite them for a game or share a picture or use the webcam to talk free to eachother. Why not make it with support for the OVI account. Man i have so many great ideas! i would love to make them come true myself, i only have 0% experience in writing apps.

There are much mare apps available for Maemo.
Just look at M2, M3, M4 repositories as well.

The root of the problem is that Nokia really renders these works useless by fragmenting Maemo users and thereby market for apps in a number of smaller ones. It would be so easy to provide M2 - M4 users at least with update that makes UI and apps compatible. Apple shows how this works successfully.

Or do you think ppl will be happy with coming M6 if there are again zero users and hence apps supported by community once NOKIA starts with a M6 device, while "forgetting" the large community of M2-M5 users .....?

I like Maemo and hope Nokia mgmt does it right ....

The large steps were until now, the step from Maemo 5 to Maemo 6 will be smaller. Devs can start doing stuff in OpenGL ES 2.0 and QT 4.6 right now for Maemo 5 and will be very ready once Maemo 6 comes out. No excuses.

And don't worry about the 10'000 apps myth (or even 100'000). Tell us your needs. Look at all the things that you can get with that fantastic browser and flash. We have the whole internet in our pockets on the N900. It's a computer. We aren't crippled, needing a stick (app) for every step we take.
But then I'm the first to say that I really want a cool shooter and a race game on my N900. Bounce and Angry Birds are a really good start.