Originally Posted by mrojas

"The future" and "the way things are happening at Nokia" is something I, and others, have been trying to explain again and again, and people seems unable to understand. So, on one last effort to ignore the ad hominem you have been so happy to pile on me, here it is:

a) Nokia is not going to copy Apple's model. Period. Why? Because it is against their philosophy, corporate culture, goals, etc.

b) Nokia is not, and have never tried really to be, a handset luxury maker (like Apple and the iPhone). They are the Honda or Toyota of the handset world. That is why they have 41% of the whole market share. They make more handsets that every other manufacturer.

c) Nokia recognized something that a lot of people keep saying but really don't understand: the ecosystem and platform is the future, over handsets themselves. That is why they focused on changing to be a provider of that, over launching new shiny high end handsets.

d) Why did they do that? Because the luxury smartphone market is crowded enough, changing Symbian to be "shiny" was going to take time, changing Maemo to be shiny was going to take time, and for the Ovi store to mature was going to take time.

d) In the meantime, they chose to be stronger in the emerging/low market, by pushing previous "high end" models there (like the 3 new C and E phones they launched).

e) All that has left high end consumers with a very foul taste in their mouths. Symbian, right now, doesn´t have anything to impress. Hopefully they will. Nothing new in the MeeGo front. And the announcement of MeeGo, in my opinion, was very poorly managed.

And about the N900, their vagueness about future support has been unclear at best. Quim Gil said that there were more software releases for the N900 in the pipeline, based on Fremantle. But the real question, of MeeGo on the N900, has not been clearly answered yet. And that is why I ultimately decided not to buy one! (my friends that got one didn't care about that, btw).

A lot of things are supposed to happen this year. The new release of Qt, supporting multiple platforms, the launch of new, Snapdragon powered Symbian devices, the launch of the new MeeGo device, the launch of the revamped Ovi store.

My recommendation has always been: wait and see. As hard as it is.

If not, get an Android device.. the HTC Desire is tempting enough...

Originally Posted by junooni

fair enough..and agreed.

Originally Posted by Crashdamage

I stand guilty as charged. But not particularly sorry.

Anyway, to get back on topic...I say Nokia is ahead - not behind! Hear me out. BTW,a large part of what follows is from a post I did in the MeeGo forum...

As has been said, Apple got where they are by bringing out a (seemingly) new, (somewhat) compelling product and expertly marketing the hell outta the thing. But they - and other companies - have been in such a position before and fallen. History shows that eventually, open (or even semi-open) systems will eventually break the stranglehold of totally closed ones, even if a closed system is technically superior. Monopolies never last forever.

Support of an OS by many companies against that of one company is how Microsoft overtook Apple's early lead in PCs and how Android will likely soon overtake the iPhone's early lead (leaving Symbian aside for the moment). Like Apple did with PCs, Sony tried to rule VCRs with the closed BetaMax system, allowed on only their hardware, but were overtaken by the VHS system because it was supported by many manufacturers. Choice and price eventually wins out. Nokia and Intel aren't ignorant of that kind of tech history.

In America advertising is everything. Americans are generally tech-stupid. They buy what they're told or popular, not what's best. The same can be said elsewhere, but we Americans are particularly gullible. Nokia realized promoting Maemo by themselves even with a massive and expensive ad campaign probably wasn't going to be enough for Maemo to get where it needed to be in terms of market share and developer interest. For long-term survival in the smartphone/pocket computer marketplace against Apple, RIM and Android, it's obvious that it would take strength in numbers - really big numbers. So Nokia smartly teamed up with another absolute monster in Intel to add clout, resources and respectibility to MeeGo. And open-sourced MeeGo to add further incentive for other companies to get on board.

Add to all that the fact that Maemo/MeeGo is the most capable, advanced mobile OS currently in sight. No, the most technically advanced system doesn't always win in the marketplace, but it can't hurt that it's the one mobile OS designed from the start for pocket computing, not simply as a smartphone OS. MeeGo will be ready for whatever future hardware and software can throw at it for the next 2-3 even 5 years.

All the above is kinda obvious to readers here I know, but I just wanted to state clearly why IMHO MeeGo + Qt is a solid plan. Why I say Nokia has in fact not been left behind, but is actually ahead! Back when they were developing the N900 Nokia was already thinking in terms that other companies hadn't seriously considered - not of 'smartphones' but real pocket computers. And that if their plan is properly executed it could make MeeGo huge in 2-3 years. Now, what would be properly executing the plan?

1. Get MeeGo on hardware from multiple manufacturers.
2. Apps, baby! Lotsa apps!
3. Market the hell outta MeeGo!

Originally Posted by junooni

and so are most of us. dont know why is it so hard for ppl like u to get the idea that none of us like to bash nokia or the device, its just were worried about teh future and the way things are happining at nokia. None of us have no clue and thats what worries us where as Igave apple just as an example that its a company that just started in the phone business and became the ruler..ive been a very loyal nokia user and have used just nokia all the way..

Originally Posted by silvermountain

Maemo as an OS is 4+ years old. It is no one's but Nokia's fault that an OS was not developed in FOUR years that could span multiple devices without serious backward compatibility issues,

Not sure what you mean by that the other, now more successful alternatives, have no potential but Maemo who have not gained traction in 4+ years have.

Originally Posted by gerbick

Now, with that said, don't dismiss what I'm saying. Simply put, all of this freedom has netted not much. Like my father once said... "people take freedom as to meaning they can do a whole lot of nothing..."