Yes, it looks that way for many of them.

Perhaps not. Googling "email obsolete" is quite interesting, since you mentioned young people. In some countries, surveys have shown that young people regard email as something only old people still do. Join the club

Nobody in this thread has disagreed with that.
Only that MMS has not died yet.
It is, after all, awful technology.

Sure, but not in the next year.

No. I've had 4 other phones over 4 years that could do email and IMs, but it doesn't mean my peers and friends had the facility or had configured and were using it. There are many reasons, some them very practical, like eyesight, dexterity and brain injury problems, which make it impossble using any UI that is not extremely simple, and some of my friends still do not use the internet so it's also very unfamiliar stuff, creating "accounts" and the like.

Some 80 year old grannies love the iPhone, but granny with the shakes who can't hold a cup of tea without spilling it cannot use a touch screen, and uses a big clunky thing with big, easy to see buttons and minimal UI. It can receive MMS of course

There are a lot of you, and a lot of me, but don't be blinded by selection bias. What you see is a highly skewed sample, and so is what I see. Neither is representative. Both of us are users the N900 could support well.

lol cyber warriors!!!

the problem with many of the phones that could email and im- is they didnt work well the functionality was awful;l- since iphoine came along everyone had to raise they game. as they came out with a phone that does exactly what it says- amazing to think that is a such a big deal isnt it!

the n95 had all the functions- yet none worked well.

the n900 is very close, it has the hardware-and a very nice UI and keyboard..(and open os!!!) just rushed the implementatio with the basic stuff

hopefully /fingers crissed it will be a great phone- or i will be getting a 3gs or an android , i cant wait foir ever

The thread needs to be less personal attack and more civil discussion... just saying.

email is quite old you are right- but the messaging over ip is the aspect here- not the email specific way of using this method of communicating..(internet)

off course also email will not die, we need it in bisiness

Answer to both:

I don't see how I could handle hundreds of long, technical mails daily, many containing code patches to be acted on, using a mere Blackberry. Have you ever seen someone send you long, thought out mails containing good quoting and tested code, to a suitable quality for technical development lists followed by "sent from my BlackBerry"? Didn't think so.

Actually doing remote work, e.g. config or code fixes, or examining someone else's system to debug it (I do a lot of troubleshooting) is another important use. Not for long periods of time, but immediately on the spot when needed.

A good screen, custom software and remote shell are required. N900 or laptop are the realistic only options. It's nice to be able to do it without getting out the laptop sometimes. I do like doing consultancy work in nice cafés with a battery that lasts 36 hours

Now that the N900 is here and I've got used to using it, I plan to develop software to specifically help manage my personal workflow in other ways, even when the laptop is used alongside it. This sort of thing is not Blackberry or iPhone territory unless you get into being a devoted app developer. As I've noted, Android is getting closer. Right now the N900 is best for it, by far. Custom software is so easy, it's a no brainer to write personal-use-only apps whenever it's convenient. For personal scheduling, tracking and prioritising tasks and so on, it's a great form factor, and being able to link those directly into work that's being done (e.g. patch flow tracking, email tickets, issue trackers, phone call logs!) rather than side by side with a regular PDA, that something very promising.

Now when they fix the 3 SIM and MMS (or community may solve MMS), I'll have no need to carry the second phone because the N900 is quite good as a phone really, despite silly UI problems. Perfect

ok thats cool, you seem to be a perfect user for this phone..

i am not to be honest.. i need basic things done better , the rest is great mind

I haven't read the whole thread, but I have to say I agree wholeheartedly with this.
I would love to get it back.

I agree with you, mostly. There were a lot of problems with the first iPhones too; but people forget because of the regular software upgrades to existing models. (Nokia, take note!)

Making What It Says On the Tin so it Just Works is really, really hard in this field! Apple did it well, but far from perfect. Now others need to do better.

MMS would be nice just to have it there. It wont impact how much I love the N900. If I really want to send a voice msg or picture msg I would just use email.