I think this summer the feeling of 'left behind' will be markedly reinforced as apple release their new iPhone and OS. It wouldn't be a stretch to predict that mobile IP Video conferencing is gonna be THE feature people will be asking about when they talk about smart phones as apple hypes it up to sell their new handset.

This is trend is predictable... this feature is doable on the N900... yet why isn't there any visible development of N900 in that area? It would feel as if we've known what's coming all along and we're not doing a thing to stop it.

@enyibinikata: mono speaker? seriously dude.. how stereo can you get with a couple of inches of separation?

...which, if true, would only tell how incredibly dumb comsumers are.

Video calls are available on phones since 2003 or so... IP-based solutions followed later but are available for S60 phones.

If they actually manage to sell video calls (even if only IP-based) on the iPhone as the new "big thing", mankind is lost. Ants will take over and rule the world.

You can easily have nine screens on the N900 btw.

The question is, why didn't it sell?

Could it be that the hardware and software support wasn't available with the right price, quality and availability back then?

few possible factors:
- the high price of packet cellular data back then
- it wasn't as exciting on 160x120 256colors screen
- what video codec were used back then?
- was it supported by as many IM services as it is today?
- etc

Timing is a key element in all this. You can't simply be the first to bring something to market with bad timing and be a whiny loser when someone else executes it correctly to their benefit.

Anyway, what's stopping N900 to take away Apple's thunder?
Can we even play chatroulette on N900?

um... no it is not. Maybe in Apple or MSDOS fantasy world yes, otherwise no.

V.

OUCH this thread is very sad to read and for once it was started by a real gentleman who does NOT use sadistic comments like some on this community i might add, but mearly states fact and i must agree with him because he talks common sense with reality unlike the die hard Nokia fans that simply will not allow negative comments regarding Nokia or there N900.
N900 is Nokia worst mobile whatever in Nokia's history without a shadow of a doubt.
The sad fact is that many many have already sold on or are about to sell there N900's (take a look at the "HTC Desire vs N900. First impressions" thread for example.)
In some kind of defense of Nokia i will say this, when the next upgrade does come, there for sure will be a few sorry people out there for selling there N900's and also the bad times will be very easy forgot when the N900 does start to shine in its own right.
Please people try to remember there really is NO need for nasty comments directed at any user's as this should be a forum of education not for slander
as everyone has the right to an opinion WITHOUT nastiness.
Many if not all N900 users wish it's not too long for the much needed OS upgrade.

All that whining about that missing app store. My app store is the application manager and the various repositories. But then again, I'm used to repository based software distribution and was really excited to learn Nokia jumped on that concept with Maego. Funny how an iPhone adept who sits next to me at work raves about his jailbroken device and how he can now use a software repository which is very similar to Maemo's instead of an app store, and yet people here go on and on about Nokia not having one. My position is that we really don't need one.

BTW, I did know what I was getting into with buying an N900, and any alternative I'll consider will be held to the N900 as benchmark (and likely lose).

Hey, I'm kindof annoyed with Nokia for misleading me about what the N900 could do. For me, the battery life is terrible, and batterygraph doesn't help me much at all. I just see that Network is busy all the time. There is an Evernote App adverstised on the Nokia site for the N900 that doesn't exist.

I'm glad that somewhere like talk.maemo.org exists, so that I can learn something, but ultimately I place blame at a disconnect between the Nokia phone building people and the Nokia marketing people.

The N900 is probably a great little computer, but for me it's a frustrating experience because I am being forced to solve problems and learn linux when want to do reasonably straightforward things.

My experience does not match this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYnx0PUX7Do

At the same time, my sincere thanks to the community of people here that are working hard to develop things for the platform, I will help in the limited way that I can.

For now, I hope that someone from Nokia HQ is reading this thread and gets a sense of the urgent need to update the software on the phone.

Let's throw a few more variables to see the complete picture. Multitasking isn't without cost. It consumes CPU & RAM and ultimately battery life.

If one can identify which functionalities need 'realtime' background\parallel execution and which can be provided by simple serial-tasking (State saving, quick app swap mechanism) to get the benefit of speedier front-app execution and less resource waste, then that's a trade off that may be worth considering.

I'm not here to defend Nokia. They definitely "screwed up" if ones view is that the N900 should cater to hipsters who think the most important things in the world are music and YouTube.

That's a definite truth.

But if you want a device to do real IT work on, this device can't be beat. Hands down. They could have left it Maemo version 1.0 and I'd still be fine with it, but of course I've stated this multiple times in these forums. I vpn and hack in shells most of my work day. Being able to stand on Natural Bridge and fix problems is nice.. (as nice as working while hiking can be. )