I have spent little over 2 weeks on this forum and find huge value from it, tonnes of smart passionate people here who want to see Maemo and Nokia be successfully. The only hangup I have is the worldview.

I have read many posts describing Maemo devices as not meant for the mass market, but rather it is meant for tech junkies. I can see the value proposition of the n900 (or any Maemo device) to a techy. It is a real OS with all its functionality open to you.

My question is can the n900 and future Maemo devices be more than a cool toy (tool) for a techy? Can it be a mass market device with broad appeal. Can it be both?

If the world were perfect what would the community need to meet the needs of both niche users and mass market? I think we need to think openly about what the open source community at large has done as well as what 'closed' competitors have done.

Well I'm guessing that mass market for such a device can only make sense in the context of business or special use case which you can market to people who can't see value in a portable computer... In that case maybe it's lacking the very specific, hand holding, applications to realize specific tasks in a very easy and obtuse way.

My guess is that device will of course make FOSS users and techies happy but that mobile device power users will be the limit of its reach... Though that all depends on how applications show up and how they integrate with highly fashionable products that have nothing to do with quality, just ads and general consumption trends.

I'm hoping that we can reconcile both and actually have an open and mass marketable device pleasing both techies and grandma but right now, I think we'll have to wait to at least version 6 for the grandma part...

I'd say Maemo 5 / the N900 is good for every "conscious" internet user. E.g. those who would install an internet browser other than internet explorer because they care to some extend. Previous versions of Maemo just weren't there yet, but Maemo 5 is.

Maemo 6 will be for everybody. At least that's the plan.

I wouldn't make this about open source or closed source, there is nothing that can be done with closed source software that Nokia can't do with Maemo eventually.

This was in reference to the iPhone, which if used in a way that won't help the terrorists is completely gated. The value that is brought by the gate is a controlled user experience. For example, there is not a question whether a given app will work in portrait mode because if your app does not conform to their guidelines users will never have access to it.

Now I guess that Nokia could do this, but it would be counter to what nokia has done in the past as well as current. I would personally hate to see this, I like that I can f*ck up my phone however and whenever i choose.

Granted at first look the device seems a "Techie Phone" but when you see how well designed the UI is and the obvious thought that went into phone functionality you soon realize that even a person without tech skills could be quite happy with the phone.

With a decent subsidy like another phone I wont mention gets, I think the n900 could do well amongst the general public.

From the promo materials i've seen so far, there should be enough to interest and attract most smartphone users out there. Whether the end user experience is smooth and pleasant enough to gain enough good review and continue the adoption pace, that remains to be seen

I think the integrated IM and VoIP capabilities could easily win even less technical users over. "I can have my GMail chats with me in the bus, really?"

Yep thats what I am saying

Im gonna create another post on the top 10 features for each 'class' of user I think this will be helpful for groups talking about marketing...

Do many of the Nokia folks read/watch these blogs?

I don't understand the seemingly common desires to have one phone be 'the' phone. Nokia is number one handset maker and produces like 50 something different models every year. They are in a ton of markets that something like the iphone will never reach. I think they can safely make iphone competitors(like n97, n900, n97 mini) AND business/blackberry competitors(e71, e72, e51, e63, etc) AND entertainment competitors(Xpressmusic and new X line) AND cheapie throwaway models(1600 and 2600 model lines).

Why should nokia want to limit itself to just one market segment?