Yeah, give one to Mircea Badea (romanians know ) to smash it on his desk...

Don't hold your breath.
The American way isn't the Nokia way.

You got me there, QOLE! But I think being in America, the biggest thing that sells cellphones here is TV exposure and media coverage, not viral videos, for the mainstream. Going viral won't get people to ignore the devices in the carrier stores. Apple, Palm, and Blackberry have great TV exposure here. I counted 40 some odd TV commercials and news coverage mentions just in a few hours one day last year. The "going viral" thing works great, but it didn't do much for the N95 with the Symbian-Guru "Hi, I'm an N95! Oh hi, I'm an iPhone!" YouTube videos.

Fact is, in the US, consumers hear about a phone and ask the carrier if they have it. That's it. The mainstream consumer will consider it another Euro phone we won't get. But put it on Oprah and see what happens. No one cared about Kindles until she touted them on her show, and now they're considered a standard for ebooks.

I consider Oprah one of the top 5 most powerful women in the world, and I'm not alone. She's a self made billionaire and the first Black female billionaire. Her respect is unprecedented, and she has PULL! I'm surprised you guys don't know how big an N900 on her show would be. All she's got to say is "your carriers won't have this phone, but you can get it from Amazon or Best Buy" and watch the registers start chinging full of cash.

And if Oprah's influence isn't enough, check this out.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/21/oprah.beef/

She IS the voice of Americans! Women love her, and do whatever she says, and she gets wives to influence husbands that (lying) don't admit watching her show.

Somebody make an Oprah's book club applet already!

Of course Oprah has tremendous pull, nobody is denying that.

But, Oprah is speaking for the mainstream consumer. You have to convince her that this n900 is a mainstream device that is more useful than what people already have. With the Kindle, Oprah or a marketer can tout how you can easily download any book and start reading instantly--the fact that you don't have to schlep to the book store or wait for your Amazon order to arrive or have a bunch of books in one portable device is naturally going to be appealing to a lot of people.

The n900 looks to be an awesome device. Most of us on this forum have a lot of experience using Maemo already, so you won't have to convince us of anything--we know what it can and can't do, and the positives outweigh the negatives for us. But is it mass consumer-ready? If you read the posts in other forums from other techie early adopter types without experience with the Nokia tablets, even many of them are taking a wait-and-see approach with questions like, "what will the reviews say?", "will there be apps for it?", "will it be subsidized by my carrier?", "will it even work on my carrier?", "I just bought an iPhone 3GS, why should I break my contract for this?".

If the early adopters are asking these often legitimate questions, imagine having to convince a regular consumer of the value of an n900. As has been argued many times, there is a resistance to buying unlocked phones in the US because (1) a lot of people don't know it's possible, (2) for people not on GSM networks, it really isn't possible, and (3) subsidized phones offer tangible value, while the value afforded by an unlocked phone just isn't relevant to many people. The cell phone network in the US isn't the greatest, even compared to some developing countries. Outside metro areas, people buy the network that actually works best for where they live, rather than the phone. Most of the time, that network is going to be Verizon. Since Nokia probably won't release a CDMA version of the n900, much of Oprah's middle America target demo won't switch to the n900 even if they liked looks of the phone, simply because of network availability concerns.

Finally, anecdotal evidence (i.e., me looking at my "hipster/hipster wannabe" office mates and friends) makes me think that the majority of the consumer-oriented demographic that would like this phone already have their blackberries and iPhones and are probably locked to their contracts. That will make trying to convince them that the Nokia n900 will be better than their current devices for stuff like enterprise/office communications capabilities (blackberries) or having millions of apps at the ready (iPhone) that much more difficult, especially when the n900 may not necessarily be ready to compete with a blackberry or an iPhone on their turf.

The multi-year contract slavery thing in North America is going to be a big barrier for any new phone. Market penetration will be slow as people are forced to ride out two year contracts with incompatible carriers that they signed two weeks before the N900 went on sale.

By the time the Early Adopter / Technophile buzz has made the N900 "known" in the North American market, hopefully Nokia will have other Maemo devices to offer.

I really do believe that word of mouth and the influence of thought / style leaders is as powerful as any TV ad campaign. Put Maemo devices into the hands of the right people (tech-savvy influencers), and just let them use them and carry them around for a few weeks. That's your best bet.

now that is a GREAT marketing idea...
did you hear this one nokia guys??

@ klinglerware,
All you have to do is convince Oprah its the future. She is savvy as hell. Let me do the selling, and get on her show. Her reach is unmatched, far greater than Top Gear (one of my faves, though. He's so funny, too). Nokia needs to do more to attract women, as Apple does. Oprah is the role model of all women in America. They all watch her, and if you want a woman in your life, you might have to watch her too. She's not bad at all for guys, either.

The questions the consumers may have are something I could easily answer with the device in my hand. Just let them use it. I promise you, the American users grew up with Windows 95 and AOL. The N900 IS that experience, and they'll feel familiar as soon as they use the web. The situation with apps is simple. Debian Linux isn't new, so many apps already exist. Open source means more will come, most will be free, and whatever the people want defines what gets ported. As for carriers and subsidies, get the phone on Oprah and carriers will jump to offer it.

The issue of the carrier compatibility is moot after the iPhone's success. A good marketing effort will attract buyers regardless. Apple sucked plenty Blackberry WinMo and Palm users when it came out. We just need a visible marketing push. When will we see THAT happen in the US is my problem. We need help, and Nokia has to use its head here instead of us sounding defeated like we can't overcome somethink Apple has. If Apple can, I will is my way of thinking. Maybe a more confident attitude from Nokia would help as well.

klinglerware, is your name a combination of David Klingler and Andre Ware? They were two college QB's that were popular rivals in the 90's. If not, that's a big coincidence.

Aha ! Good idea, maybe then she will care to carry it on her show.