Which is the reason I believe someone said this phone is "step 4" of a 5 step process.

something i wrote in a similiar topic...

Despite the fact I never owned a Nxx tablet and never used Linux, I do know phones, computers, consoles and all kinds of electronics. And, to me, as an user of Windows (never had the need to use a different OS), Linux seemed as something just for programmers and geeks, something even more "boring" than Mac OS/X. Now, the first time i heard about the N900 and read that it runs Linux, i thought at first: "Hm, the thing looks great, has great hardware, but Linux? And what the hell is this Maemo? Where is my Symbian?". That's probably what the majority of people, who never heard about a Nxx device, thought and will think, at first. After watching videos though, how the N900 works, I started to like it, alot, putting aside the fact its OS is based off Linux. Today, I don't care about this factor. My point is, when people play with the device and get to know afterwords it's Linux, they'll go like: "This is Linux? It's very cool! How is it like on PC? Is it this cool too? Great device.", thus braking the barrier between an average PC user and a geek, looking at Linux as an OS differently, becoming less remote for a non-geek to grasp and enjoy. In this sense i think the N900 does a great job, much better than the previous tablets. And this is just the OS. After this step of observing, people will get even more curious, because the UI is done in a very user-friendly way, thus making the device easier to use, something like the iPhone. Sure, some folks will still find the thing complicated, i did to, but reading the manual for more complicated tasks, which are fairly easy but can be harder to find, can't be that complicated, right? Everyone can still use the phone out of the box to do ordinary stuff, just like with a normal phone. If you look how much the tablet has changed (how it looks, the OS/UI, hardware), it definately is a step closer to becoming mainstream and i am convinced it will, as long as people see commercials for it over the place (because what studying marketing has taught me: you can have a brilliant product, but if you won't put up any commercials and some propaganda to it, eventhough your neighbours product is zillion times worse, thanks to all the marketing campaigns his device will sell better. - because commercials are mind control and the more you focus on them, the more minds you can control eventhough your product is complete crap).

is guess that is only my view though.. hm?

I agree that the N900 won't be for the average Joe. It's has a solid foundation for being a killer device for the average Joe. Right now it doesn't have a pretty structure (applications) on top of the foundation that people think they need nor the familiarity for people to "risk" buying. All of that takes time and that's probably why the Nokia people say the N900 is step 4 of 5.

If I was a betting man, the next generation N900 (step 5 of 5) won't be much different from the present N900 from a technology standpoint - but will have a lot of flash, glitz, applications (good or not, but enough to fill up pages of the OVI store) & a large marketing budget to get the average Joe to buy.

Between now and when the price point inevitably drops to sub-$400, we had better get our A's into G and port/develop a wealth of attractive apps.

I guess that my problem with that is people like me. I'm not quite 'Joe Average', and expect my IT to work for its houseroom. On the other hand, I've never tackled anything linux before, and not being a progammer am unlikely to ever cut it as a developer.

Right now, it's people like me nokia need on board: people who're half way between 'Joe Average' and 'Full Blown Geek'. And in part the question of whether I get on board is dependent on the community. Unfair though it probably seems, we need you to assure us that the wizzy apps will come - at least the basic ones we need.

The plus side of that is that us 'geek-lite' types make great evangelists, as we can show off what we've learned and enthuse in language accessible to Joe Average.

Nokia have put a fair amount of effort and investment into getting this far. If they're going to get their investment back, they need enough handsets to sell - at least enough to convince shareholders to continue to 'step 5'.

It amazes me that this community is agreeing that the n900 is not good for the mass market.

Compare it to the best of android or OSx devices ignoring the application markets. It is at least as good, imo better.

If what makes the device a mass market device is 1000 apps then sure, it is going to take 6-12 months to get there, just like it did for the nokia 5800 or n97, the first s60^5 devices.

Nokia has not tried to compare the n900 to android or i-phone because as Volt said "The N900 is one of the few phones that doesn't try to be the Iphone." It is a new platform that has the potential to be as revolutionary as android or osx or symbian s60

Yesterday Computerworld published a report about mobile phone os ( http://shar.es/1YiLD ) where it talked about the market make up in 2012.

Symbian = 36 %
Android = 14 %
OSX = 13.7 %
WinMo=12.8 %
Various Linux maemo is bunched in here = 5.4% or 28M units

28 Million is not 200million but, It shows there is a real market out there that developers and software companies should pay attention to!! Millions of potential customers to but their wares.

Lets focus positive energy to the market and give them the examples they need to understand why it is special, different, and better in its own way.

Joe Average usually uses dumb phones because all he wants is to make calls and texting.
Only a small fraction of those people use iPhone, because they think it's cool. They don't even realize it's dumbed down because they don't expect much from a phone.

For people who have been using smartphones before OTOH, an iPhone is not really an option. The N900 will have a hard time standing up to state-of-the-art smartphones, too, but it definitely has potential.

The N900 is no iPhone killer for several reasons, IMHO:

- it will never have as many apps as iPhone (Maemo will have quality instead of quantity)
- not many commercial developers because the N900 user base wouldn't throw away money for fart apps and co.
- the user interface is too complicated (for Joe "Dumbphone User" Average it is)
- resistive touch screen (the screen is good, but Joe Average will only listen to "experts" instead of trying himself)
- the Nokia brand is not "cool"
- too heavy
- not many carriers will carry it
- hardware keyboard (looks like a complicated device, will scare Joe Average away)

I'm assuming you mean Joe Average who lives in the US...if this is the case then it won't matter what the N900 can do because unless it is subsidized by the carriers (the carriers have trained 'us' so well) Joe Average will not pay $650 for a phone. I showed this phone to many colleagues and friends...and they were all excited about the phone until I told them the price.

Im sure there are Average Joe's in other countries.. maybe they just call them Average Sven or John Média

This is spot on. People will look at the $600 price tag and say "I can get an iPhone for $199" (not, of course, fully realizing how much they're committing to pay down the road).

I'm not particularly concerned about whether your Average Joe appreciates the merits of the N900, because your Average Joe doesn't understand the difference between a locked-down "smartphone" and a hackable pocket computer. As for me, I'll take the pocket computer that runs Linux, thank you.

It's inevitable that the addition of 3G capabilities to the tablets would lead to erroneous comparisons with existing smartphones. But the N900 should really be compared with other MIDs and pocket computers.