One quote from the Slashgear article:

As for the first commercial products, they’re expected to reach the market in late 2010 or early 2011, with TI proving tight-lipped on exactly which manufacturers are on-board; both smartphones and other devices – such as tablets – are apparently in the pipeline.

2H2010, tablet, that fits with the Nokia M6 device. Unfortunately it also fits with the N900 being left behind by M6.

Really, the next Maemo 6 device(s?) will use OMAP3. This is not guessing, it was in a presentation by a Nokia rep at Maemo Summit. You can find the slides here.

You may be right, but plans change. The competition is already running at 1GHz and Qualcomm has announced a dual core 1.5GHz Snapdragon. The OMAP3640 is the fastest OMAP3 that I've seen announced and it's only a 1GHz processor. I would not be surprised to see Nokia go with OMAP4. OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

But OMAP also has an integrated DSP that does much of the heavy lifting when it comes to media, which Snapdragon doesn't. It's an apples to oranges comparison.

There is also talk that Nokia will be pushing maemo really hard in 2010.
Supposedly 10% of all sold Nokia phones will be maemo 6 devices by 2011.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/...-half-of-2010/
With Nokia selling 400 to 500 million phones a year, that would be more Maemo 6 devices then iPhones have sold in the last 2 and a half years.
I very much doubt that that will happen if maemo 6 will only run on the newly released highest performence mobile chips (OMAP 4). It would simply make Maemo 6 devices too expensive to reach the 10% goal.

I have nothing to add to the previous comments; Snapdragon is overhyped due the outcome of the semi-censored Google Search, and Maemo will account for 20% of Nokia's smartphone portfolio in 2011.

Not a chance... Nokia hasn't been using any cutting edge technology since n95. Even the omap3 chipset is a bit outdated, though it'll still get the job done. That's the chip we're going to see in maemo 6 devices.

I don't know how cortex a8 compares to snapdragon, but if I understood correctly - the snapdragon is based on older - less effecient - arm architechture than cortex a8...

Edit: I Stand corrected - the snapdragon gives 5% more/mhz...

At the moment it would seem pointless having dual core processors or 1.5 ghz + processors.

Before we can have that the software would have to be highly optimized (to minimize battery usage) as well as the os being designed to switch off anything which is not currently being used - i.e. wifi, micro usb ports, bluetooth to conserve battery and possibly some new battery tech to increase the battery life dramatically, as with dual core processors or powerful 1.5 + ghz processors will come more graphic intense games = more battery usage.

So hence the problem. The next big development really needs to be a new type of battery tech to tripple the current life of the N900 otherwise dual core processor + gaming = 3 hours battery life.

that doesn need to be the case.

the OMAP34x in the N900 is still made on a 65nm process.
The OMAP36x and the OMAP4 will be produces on 45nm. That will result in a huge energy saving.

I think the Maemo 6 devices will use the OMAP36x chip. cheaper and more energy efficient.

Timing of dual core chips also fits perfectly for Symbian^4 devices.