For instance I never use camera, maps or navigation. A camera phone in my opinion is just for documentation (like taking a picture to remember something you want to buy or a page of a user's manual), not for real photos.
Nobody is sending SMS/MMS anymore. The last time I received an MMS was in 2008. Proper IM apps are the most important thing a phone should have after making calls and before web browsing and email.
Sadly and I'm even ashamed to say this, a phone without at least GTalk, Skype and WhatsApp is already a dead phone.
Just look around you. When you see somebody using a phone is either typing a message or making/receiving a call. Also checking their Twitter and Facebook accounts (though they could do this through a web browser). They just browse the web when they are bored. I think I fire up my browser in the N900 once a week, and just because of boredom, but I'm typing messages all the time.
Jolla can't make a phone just for the geeks, because it's destined to fail. They need to make a phone appealing to everybody not only 50.000 hungry nerds. Otherwise the phone will be dead. This is a business. I'm sure the numbers Jolla must be looking is that there are 500 million of iOS devices in the world turned on as we speak instead of ~60.000 N900/N9 turned on right now. This is BUSINESS not a device to make geeks happy.
I have never used GTalk, WhatsApp or Facebook. I do not even know what these really are. Skype I have used looooong time ago, on a computer. I do not know what are your "proper IM apps", but I do use IRC from console
On the other hand, I do use camera fairly often when I need to take picture on something for later reference. For real photography, I use a SLR. SMS'es I write several each day. MMS'es few a week. Same goes for email, few mails per day.
Browser is absolutely the most useful application, I'll fire it up few times per hour on any normal day. Navigation, it's essential. Could not find my way around cities without it.
Ah, one I forgot, (but it's related to navigation), tracking my running distances on MeeTrainer.
In this side of the planet it's like this: Half of the mobile users have Androids, the other half have iPhones. The iPhones users chat between them using FaceTime or iMessage. Android users chat between them using GTalk. To chat between platforms they use WhatsApp. WhatsApp have more users than twitter right now: People using PCs chat through AIM or MSN. Since MSN died, they use Skype now. SMS are for banks and bills now. If I receive an SMS is because I haven't paid something or because I did (I used my debit/credit card and then I receive an SMS about it). I rarely receive an SMS from a non-automated source.
That must be it. I am 40+ and this thread was the first time I've even heard about whatsit. My SMS-using friends and family are similar dinosaurs. It may also depend on your calling plan. Pretty much everyone I know is on PAYG (pay as you go = pre-paid). Nobody is on a monthly contract.
I was born in 1975 and that's not the case. Every one around me from my age use WhatsApp. Some older guys also use Blackberry Messenger but they still use WhatsApp. SMS is not free. WhatsApp messages are free (or were free until recently). Data plan is way cheaper here than an SMS plan. Maybe in Europe SMS is 100% free? WhatsApp became mainstream because it's kinda free (not anymore though).
I'll more than likely invest in one. Although I'm a little apprehensive about the snap-on covers. Will we be carrying dozens of little plastic covers when we are out and about? They've already announced their first design change in that the production run will have a smaller bezel. They've kept the screen size, so it means a slightly smaller case.
...Yes these things are important for regular people because they are not geeks. They don't care about open source, having terminal and all that. THEY don't have a reason to buy Jolla over any other phone. Jolla should appeal first and first most to geeks. ... This market is big enough to keep them going in the beginning, together with the some of the regular people who are willing to buy new different devices. If they appeal to regular people and there is no reason to buy their phone for geeks, they will have a hard time surviving.