In my yesterday's thread, I am thinking whether buying a N900 now or wait for the next Nokia N9XX with Maemo 6 OS.

I thinked about this deeply last night and I found one point.
This is the key point and a very big difference between Nokia Maemo device and Android device/Apple iPhone.

That is :
Both iPhone and Android phone can upgrade their OS.
(iPhone can upgrade from OS 1.0 to 2.0, then to 3.0
Android can upgrade OS version from 1.5 to 2.1)

But N900 cannot.
Also, all NOKIA phones cannot upgrade OS.
(I mean cross-version upgrade, not just the bug fixing upgrade)

It's just like on my PC, I can use Ubuntu 8.04.3.
I can also install 8.10 or 9.04 or 9.10.
When 10.04 release on Apr.2010,
of course, I can install it on my PC.

But it seems that NOKIA's "rule" is to make the mobile phone and OS a bundle.
For instance, you cannot install Maemo 5 on N810.
and it seems Maemo 6 cannot run properly on N900.

I think this "NOKIA rule" may be OK with some S40 low-end (entry level) mobile phones.
But for smart phone market, this action should not be taken.

So I am wondering whether NOKIA could provide a CD image
or some thing like that to let the end user install the OS by ourselves, just like what Apple does.

I think NOKIA should think about this question.

I think it should be a marketing consideration or what.
Because this "buddle strategy" makes you have to buy a new mobile phone if you want to experience the new OS.

But take a look at iPhone and Android, they also make a big sucess
with their OS upgrade supported.

The iPhone and Android mobile phone has a common point :
Their hardware spec is very similar and no big change between different generation products. For example, the iPhone and iPhone 3GS
are very similar in hardware spec, only the CPU and RAM upgrade on 3GS.

This "good design at first time and small change in the next generations" strategy makes the OS upgrade possible.

And let's take a look at Nokia's products, N770, N800, N810, N900

different specs, lead to different OS.

I think it's time to stop changing the spec now !

Just settle down a standard and hardware spec,

and then develop the OS based on that hardware spec,

to make the OS upgrade possible.

Better start from Maemo 6 and the relevant device.

Every iPhone screen is the same etc., but not every Android screen and etc., which makes difficult to run or develop software for different android version and devices...

Maemo5 and N810, this is the problem of hardware of the device. Compare the hardware of the N810 and N900 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interne..._Tablet_models ), there is a significant difference...an older CPU-architecture with less power and the half size of RAM...

Also look at this --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maemo_%...elease_history

Keep in mind Apple's idea of a full OS upgrade is adding copy/paste.

Thank you for your thread.

Just like you said, iPhone screen is the same because there is only one vendor : Apple Inc.

And Android had several hardware vendors, such as HTC, Asus, Lenovo, Motorola etc. and Google want it to be like this.
But let's take a look at one Anroid phone, we take HTC G3 (Hero)
for instance, it can also support cross-version OS upgrade.
From 1.5 to 2.1. But Nokia device cannot do that.


I know it is the hardware spec difference that cause the OS upgrade impossible on N810.
And that is exactly what I want to say, I suggest NOKIA do not make big hardware changes any more.

You can upgrade the CPU, or RAM size, screen size(not resolution), to make the device runs more quickly.

But should not interfere the OS upgrade.

Anyone has the same idea ?

I'd be willing to bet that some within Nokia would argue this would make them less-competitive (granted they aren't that competitive in the 'highend smartphone' department currently..)

Yes. N900 is not very competitive in smartphone market.
One big reason is the software quantity.
So I think Nokia should not make changes any more,
and the quantity of the software will raise also.

I think NOKIA definately had thought about it.

And now Maemo has only a few softwares.

If cannot upgrade the OS, what else can we expect ?

This isn't quite right. It requires a complete rebuild of the OS. On your desktop there is x86 and AMD64.. so the OS will still run.

OMAP-2 to OMAP-3 requires a complete recompile.

Then you have The 3D. The N810 only supports OpenGL1.1 (IIRC), but the foundation of Maemo 5 is OpenGLES 2 (IIRC, version numbers suspect.) - meaning that the hardware of the N810 simply not only requires a complete recompile of Maemo 5.. but an actual complete re-write because of the 3D requirements.

Think of trying to run Crysis Warhead on your old Pentium 400mhz.

Now.. with all that said:

I was and am hugely against the decision to not bring Maemo 6 to the N900 because from everything released so far (M6 device being based on OMAP-3 as well) - there should be no reason it can't run on the N900.

However, Qgil asked me and others in another thread to hold off until the release of more M6 details before passing judgement and I plan to do just that.

From what little we know so far... at the very least it appears that the QT libraries are going to be supported for M5 for sometime and M6 is entirely based on the QT libraries. This means that even though the OS itself may not be upgradeable... the software written for one should work for the other.. barring certain hardware incompatibilities such as Multi-Touch (which M6 has been said to support, since it will be based on capacitive touchscreen).

All information above taken from about 100 (approximate, give or take 95 or so) different threads already written about this topic from these forums... and may be perfectly accurate, somewhat accurate, or wildly inaccurate.

Take it as you will.

I dont think they should stop hardware changes. Technology is always improving and new hardware upgrades are necessary. If N900 had the specs of the N800 would it ever be as popular? I doubt it...iphone has hardware changes too but its mainly built the same, making upgrades possible, Nokia cannot do this because they have different types of phones, not just 1 like the iphone. Android phones are also basically the same. Nokia has business phones, media phones, and internet-centric phones, and basic dumb-phones. they cant all have the same software because they're entirely different devices with different purposes.

Also, the n900 was somewhat of a test-run for Nokia to get feedback and things, so i dont think it will have a long life, or future support. i think they're maemo 6 devices which will be more refined will have more support for updates and things.