I think by now it is clear that Nokia believes that there is sufficient market space for such devices as the N900.

Remember, it ain't just balding, greybeard *nix hacker geeks like me that are into these devices (that would be an unprofitable market)...there is a whole new breed of tech savvy late-teens/twentysomethings that are cool with linux distros like Ubuntu. They understand what this device and platform means, and they have mommy & daddy's wallet to raid at Christmas

The hurdle for the N900 is slightly higher because Nokia blew so much goodwill on the N97.

Nokia had the balls to call it their Flagship when it was running 2year old hardware and a poorly designed UI. But it still sold millions because it was free on contract.

(I swear some day I'll write a post that isn't novel-length...but today is not that day, alas).

I hate to piss in your cornflakes, but the odds are good that Maemo will never become Nokia's point of focus (assuming of course that they have to chose one technology to be the point of focus; they are a large company, and fully capable of multi-tasking).

Nokia sells a ridiculous amount of phones. In fact, Nokia sells so many phones that the numbers are barely imaginable (the figure I see for 2008 was around 1.24 Billion...yes that's billion with a "B").

A rather large number of these phones run Symbian S60.

I don't work for Nokia (childhood dream notwithstanding), so my take on their strategy is as uneducated as most everyone else's on here; but I can say with pretty good certainty that they are not planning to have Maemo be a replacement for Symbian.

That isn't to say that if Maemo becomes a runaway success that they won't re-evaluate that decision, but I have to imagine that they don't consider that likely.

And the funny thing is that no one from Nokia is arguing that. Nokia seems to be making it a point to present the Maemo devices as an alternative. They have a long-term strategy, and they are executing on that strategy. The N900 represents the current phase of that strategy.

If you are reticent to get involved with Maemo due to fear of Nokia abandoning it; I think that's an unfounded concern. By all accounts, they will sell more N900's then they did N810's, and as the company seems to have a conservative goal in mind (rightly so based on a multitude of factors) I think it's safe to take the plunge.

As to whether Android will "get further faster"; yeah, most likely. Android is a good value proposition for a lot of manufacturers, and after a slow start, is finally starting to roll out into more and more devices. I see no reason not to believe that there will be more Android phones than Maemo phones. For starters, there are already a lot of Android phones (even with the small number of devices currently shipping), and that number will grow exponentially.

But so what...The beauty of the mobile economy is that it's not zero-sum. Someone else doesn't have to lose for you to win. Maemo may never eclipse Android in the realm of number of devices sold, but that doesn't negate its utility for the people who have them.

This board seems to be filled with people who believe that you'd have to be a ***** to not see that the Maemo phone (which isn't even out yet, by the way) is better than phone X. Hopefully, none of those people are working for a phone manufacturer, as the fallacious belief that your market share would be better if only customers weren't stupid and understood that you are better is a sure-fire recipe for unemployment (but at least you'd have more free time to post on your blog about how superior your technical choices are).

I think the folks with some sense seem to understand that phones are not all things to all people. Ultimately, they represent a series of choices and compromises, which if undertaken properly, will allow you to buy and use a device which works for you.

There is much to like about Maemo as a phone platform. There is much to like specifically about the N900 as phone. There are also things not to like about both. Nokia, thankfully understands this. I would be horrified if I read that they were abandoning Symbian on their phones to replace it with Maemo. They could pretty much kiss their market share goodbye with such a decision. I don't see that happening though; which makes me sleep better at night.

I think the use case is what matters and has to be explained to the users (via advertising of course).

Will just narate a short incident - yesterday I got locked out of my car with my car and house keys AND Cell phone (N95) IN the car. I couldn't call my wife who wasn't home or anybody. This was in front of my home in the parking space.

Luckily I could access the Wifi signals outside from my upstairs room and my trusty N810 (luckily it was in my shirt pocket) logged on nice and dandy.

So I used the N810 first to post a message to my friends and family on Facebook that I was locked out and if someone could help. My friend who saw it called my wife and got the AAA number (which I should have been carrying) and posted it to me.

I then used the N810's built in SIP call to call up AAA and request help ASAP - and that saved my day.

So I wrote this on the facebook thread and most of my friends who normally don't ever write to me - were agog with interest and wondered how I called out to AAA with my cell inside the car and I explained the tablet thingie to them and the built-in Skype and SIP calls. A lot of them were very impressed and actually showed interest in the Nokia tablet (and I conveniently mentioned the N900) after that.

So its these kinds of real use scenarios that get people excited - not just plain technological specs.

I think the opposite - I think that mobile hardware is advancing in sophistication at such a rate that it is ludicrous to consider them as anything other than a mobile computing device, hence the need for a proper OS - Maemo and its ilk. Making a voice call is but one narrow application.

N900 and Maemo are the best glimpse of the future I've seen so far.

<nelson muntz>
HA HA JUST LIKE A GIRL
</nelson muntz>

Seriously dude...that's a cool story.

I am a n810 owner (and loving it) and i would agree, sadly, that the average joe is not going to appreciate th n900. I think their biggest let down is going to be the lack of quality entertaining apps and games. I know n900 has better hardware and more capable, but they will compaire it to the iphone. i want to do my part. downloaded sdk and am going to try and develop. im going to wait about a year for the price to go down and see the progression before i buy it. i got to admit though im no apple fanboy, they have the fun easy to use smartphone market cornered.

their apps have got to be easier to develop.

I don't get it. Everybody here is talking about Maemo and N900 like some alien really-hard-to-use high tech mumbo jumbo. Yeah, it's different. But it's nothing more complicated than other OSes or devices. As for Symbian and Maemo. There is no replacement. It's just an evolution. Symbian can't follow the hardware anymore (it doesn't use it as much as it could) so Maemo will take the highest segment. Symbian will evolve into much graphically (yes, yes and other as well, i know) nicer environment (SF) and it will stick with the mid end devices - where it belongs now. I think that's the right choice.

I'll have to disagree with you. Compared to the iPhone, Maemo is alot more free (as in you can modify almost anything) and tinker capable. It's hard to break an iPhone software wise. It's easier to do so Maemo wise. Not so sure about Android, Palm Pre, or Windows Mobile though.

And no the n900 won't be for Average Joes. They might understand why it's so special when they can see it does things other phones can't (e.g. compared to an iPhone which can't multi-task officially). But that's assuming if they even own an iPhone, most people here in the states own dumbphones (like I do now lol).

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