maemo.org - Talk - Future of Internet Tablets

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Future of Internet Tablets

I would like to address the point made here and here

Quote:

What I'm basically saying is that the incentive for Nokia to carry on with the tablets is ebbing away:

- Nokia tablet sales so far have been relatively small, certainly nowhere near Nokia's phone sales (which are about 400 million units a year)

- Nokia's tablets have continued to be obscure niche items for three years now

- The economy is crumbling, like most companies Nokia will probably have much less spare cash to play with

- Nokia's own touchscreen Symbian phones are hitting the shops in a few months time, with the first model due to launch at a relatively low price (about half that of the iPhone). It seems likely to sell well, with more advanced bigger-screen models due in 2009.

- The market for pocket-sized non-telephony devices is vanishing, and tiny compared to telephony devices

- Making Nokia Maemo touch phones is not the answer because they would be rivals to Nokia Symbian touch phones. Companies try to avoid developing rival product lines, because it duplicates costs while cannibalising sales.

- If Nokia is forced to choose between Maemo phones and Symbian phones, they're very likely to choose Symbian phones because these sell in much larger numbers (about 60 million a year) and have much more operator support.

- Another manufacturer making Maemo phones might work, but no other companies have shown any interest in making Maemo phones (and neither has Nokia really, apart from mobile data)

IMHO the only way Maemo can survive is if it changes radically into something that isn't pocket-sized. My suggestion is explained in the link above.

Maybe. Nobody can predict the future. But there is more to be said:

-Internet "tablets" are still a developing market. Apple, as a competitor, sells the iPod touch relatively well (it is an iPod, a gaming device and an internet tablet at the same time, however). Asus demonstrated with the EEEPC that a small form factor and cheap Internet device sells like hot cakes.

-Symbian is an aging OS and very difficult to program (you have to take care of things like garbage collection yourself, etc...). Apple (again) demonstrated with the iPhone and iPod touch that a modern OS with an easy to use programming environment together with a working distribution system is able to attract more programmers in a matter of months than Symbian has attracted in years. Nokia needs a new OS for more modern phones.

-the market for mobile Internet has been stagnating for years and has just started to take off lately with the iPhone.

Nokia has also announced a N900 with a sim slot. We don't know if they are going to change their mind before it is out, but at least they are working on the next model for the moment.

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jerome (Post 236730)

IApple (again) demonstrated with the iPhone and iPod touch that a modern OS with an easy to use programming environment together with a working distribution system is able to attract more programmers in a matter of months than Symbian has attracted in years.

Just curious what you base this assertion on, in regards to the number of developers for each platform?

Quote:

Nokia has also announced a N900 with a sim slot

Really? Where?

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Quote:

Originally Posted by vbrilon (Post 236739)

Really? Where?

Nowhere, but they have said that next major software release will support 3G/HSPA data, so assumption is that next hw relesease will support cellular too :)

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Yeah but a software announcement is very different from "N900" announcement you stated. Just keeping the record straight.

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jerome (Post 236730)

Apple (again) demonstrated with the iPhone and iPod touch that a modern OS with an easy to use programming environment together with a working distribution system is able to attract more programmers in a matter of months than Symbian has attracted in years.

im not so sure if it was the dev environment that pulled people over as much as the chance of getting those minutes of press coverage by supplying the "killer app" to the "killer device"...

btw, i think one pretty much need a mac to do iphone/touch develpment...

also, Qt recently got ported to symbian...

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

I know that this is a slightly off-topic and silly question but since Nokia is planning a fuew mager changes to the N900's hardware and software, do you think that both the N800 and N810 will be discontinued much like the N770 was when OS2007 came out? Since the N900 will likely have a more powerful prosesor and possibly a slightly different chipset allong with more powerful graphics (possibly OpenGL 2.0) and also a different camera.

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Quote:

- Nokia tablet sales so far have been relatively small, certainly nowhere near Nokia's phone sales (which are about 400 million units a year)
- Nokia's tablets have continued to be obscure niche items for three years now

Nokia has not marketed the tablets at all. I had to actively search for a device which fullfilled my requirements, and only thanks to google I found about the N810.
On the other hand, who doesn't know about the ipod and the iphone?
And it isn't that there is no market for those devices. I have seen people, not geeks but people with the most basic knowledge of computers, being turned away from the shiny ipod/iphone after showing them the N810 and its openness.
People doesn't like vendor lock-in. People likes to be able to do whatever they want with their devices.
I can install whatever I want in my N810, I can program it even in python, I have installed OpenOffice.org and use it on the road, just like a pocket computer. And I dream of being able to use it for presentations, projecting slides and videos in a big screen, everything I need in my pocket: the N810, the USB-VGA adaptor, and the still non-existent pocket projector. That surely will sell well.

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Some observations:

Symbian has to take the 'good' aspects of competitors (such as Iphone) and implement these in their product. The vendor lock-in and lack of certain features/programs is not a + for some competitors; it is a -; and a + for Symbian & Co.

Qt on Symbian and Maemo makes portability easier. They already run on same architecture.

Maemo is a research project to understand which way Nokia wants to go with Symbian.

The NIT was not an always-on device while this is vital to some functionality. The N810WME is always-on due to WiMAX whereas the 'N900' will be always-on due to HS*PA.

Symbian is still a market leader and people still specifically make interfaces for Symbian.

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

Quote:

Originally Posted by b-man (Post 236750)

imo, nokia has pretty much discontinued the N800 already...

Re: Future of Internet Tablets

I purchased an N810 instead of a smart phone because I the cellular carriers in the US continue to place restrictions on there operation and position things so that they are the recipients of all revenue from services of any kind. Even something simple like ring tones. Their solution is to have you pay more for 15 secs of sound than you pay for an entire song. They cripple the designed features of devices to eliminate or make difficult any DIY media. Apple won't permit iPhone applications that compete with those they've created. I'm through with closed devices. The N810 is totally open and remains that way because it isn't sold through carriers. The N810 even functions well as a VOIP phone. It even works with my Plantronics bluetooth head set. It's weak point as a phone is that it depends on WiFi. WiMax fixes that and for now voice messaging can fill those unconnected times for me. If I wanted to pay once again for Internet access with a cellular data plan I'd have full VOIP without any carrier imposed controls. The N810 overcomes the major problem with phones by eliminating the closed carrier. I see Nokia as a company with great vision verified by their success. The timing for an N900 is very good. The Android will pave they way for the open phone running Linux. The iPhone has already convinced the world that the best phone is a computer. Ubuntu is leading the charge to legitimize Linux for the average man. It's much to early to predict the death of the N series. With a SIM card an N900 is a ready made Android platform.