The problem with other messenger solution is that the input is pretty crappy (from t9 to resistive stylus tapping to sliding/flipping keyboard) really put off any chatting solution (sms still ok just because short direct messaging, not extended chatting)

The fact that palm can compete with other phone is because of their form factor, but without improvization and proper target market and a device that can be used in gsm/3g/hdspa unlocked form, nobody can/will adopt it

E71 become worlds best selling phone because of their form factor and quality of design and proper basic function which copies bb excellent form factor and yet still missing bb push and corporate integration.

Not sure how N900 fits this though, I feel like N900 really is just an internet tablet (a good one, great if only they bring ovi map 3.0, flash 10 and better battery life hehehe ) with phone function.

Is the same as Iphone, which is the greatest ipod (and PMP) with phone functionality. But then Apple open its app store and everything changes. Now it becomes the phone/smartphone/gadget to beat.

After reading various replies it seems that N900 do replace your previous gadget together with it flaws. People choose it because they believe in the potential and to be different, not because their previous gadget can't satisfy the need of the owner.

I just wonder how many people choose N900 because of the flash and multitask ? which all other gadget can't do (well unless you get a netbook, but that won't fit your pocket and a whole different category :P). Or am I missing important apps/capabilities that N900 have but i'm not familiar with?

Xterminal/ssh/customization are all great, but that does not add value to average people other than just to be different/showing off, or maybe it just me that missing the real functionality that maemo offers (real office app maybe? But do you really work on office document with N900? or is it just another "thing" what i can do and your gadget can't do). Can someone enlight me ?

Thank you

I've answered this before in other threads:

I took a flyer with the N900 and one of the things that appealed to me was that it was similar to an iphone (ie touchscreen, videos, internet browsing with zoom, tv out etc etc) but something that 'wasn't an iphone

I still have a blackberry and I have to decide in a few weeks / next month whether our company stays with blackberries or moves to another platform, the N900 being one of them for us techies

The biggest problem I have got is that there is nothing at all out on their in the market that offers the same email facilities as BES and the speed and ease of use on the handsets themselves

one handed emailing being the largest part, which neither the iphone or N900 can do

They may have had messanger for a long time but how accessible are they? I had a few S60 phones and until you said it now I did not even know they had msn. And I am far from the average consumer. It was clearly not well advertised by Nokia. And I am pretty sure it was not as straightforward as BB Messanger. With BB you just give your friends your BB pin and you are good to go. Chat easily. Don't need to install anything, don't need to browse to any site on the device, etc.

As for Ovi, great idea but not as well as it should be implemented. I do not know a single person that is on Ovi. It is a new service like Skype was new at some time and it still relatively new. When you join Skype how do you find people on Skype? With your email address. You register it and it will tell you people you know on Skype. Ovi should do the same if Nokia want it to get even remotely widely used. On the N900 I am permanently logged in to Facebook chat, msn, yahoo, skype and googletalk. Do you know the only service I disabled? Ovi! The very service by the manufacturer of the device I am using. That tells you how far back Ovi is from BB Messanger.

Also you question why people would want a closed service. You are probably a techie so care about that. The general public doesn't care. They want something that works. Ipods are as closed as a device can be yet see how successful iphone has been. People don't care that BB Messanger means they have to buy a blackberry,etc. What they care about is that they can chat with all their friends for free, with group chat as well. That is a billion times more important to the general public than whether the device is open or close.

Well, you answered your own question - I am not an average person (and I don't mean that in a cockish kind of way). Multitasking is my primary requirement since the 2002 - I wouldn't shake a stick at anything that doesn't have it. If you remember the pre-iPhone days, the sole distinction between a dumb/feature phone and a smartphone was the smartphone's ability to run arbitrary code/3rd party apps and to multitask between those. In my eyes, iPhone is still a feature phone, and I left that ship a long, long time ago.

Also, Flash is important to me for two reasons - first because I want uncompromising browsing experience, and second because I earn 50% of my living developing web solutions in which Flash plays about 80% role. So that ability is pretty high on my list as well.

As for the xterm/ssh, those are the primary reasons I had to carry a laptop with me previously - I periodically need to tweak my servers, or adjust my apps, or even write some simple code on the run, and I can't think of simpler way than that. I am happy to report that I powered up my laptop in the past month like something 3 times - N900 made it completely obsolete. And I still have to find simpler and faster way to tweak various settings than CLI - GUI is nice, but it's not meant for everything, there are still things that are way easier and faster done with a simple set of CL commands than with a fancy GUI. That is a primary reason why I always have CLI opened on any platform I use, be it Windows, OS X or Linux. As for Office-like usage - I don't need more than a simple text editor (and vim is enough for that), I am not a secretary and I don't need any Office suite. Even if I would, editing a formatted text document or a spreadsheet would be a major PITA on a 3.5" screen so Office solutions for small form factors are completely pointless IMHO.

I choose N900 because it best fits my needs, period. Nothing out there comes even close to it. YMMV.

Thank you ysss for an excellent and balanced list from someone who can claim an informed opinion, having used all three devices.

I wholeheartedly agree with many of your points, in particular: Maemo needs more of the useful apps that the iPhone (and Android of late) boast.

I am actually doing some work on one of these apps, so I can finally replace a crucial app that runs on my old 1st gen iTouch. That's in my spare time, which I don't have a lot of - and boy are the APIs/development environment hard; not to mention that you have to code in C (or at best C++). Newer generation languages such as Java (and Objective C perhaps to a lesser extent) are an order of magnitude more productive and that's what's needed in this century! (BTW, I am a professional programmer who graduated before Java even existed). At least, there's Esbox, thank God for that!

One point I feel was not specifically adressed in your list is generic email (IMAP style). In this area, the N900 is the worst of all three platforms by a country mile!

For those interested, I have posted a list where I compare the N900, the iPhone and S60 (admittedly from the point of view of a business minded user)...