Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

The hardware is already 100% there, so pre-production probably means already produced and software still "buggy" (not made for mass market yet). In all their videos from the summit you can now see N900 on it, rather than N9XX :)

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

I do not. It's more than sensible to give the pre-production units (which in other case would be useless) and sell the 300 devices for end customers (I think they need every one of them to fill the need ;)).

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

I will love you long time, if you're correct about this...free overnight shipping so I'll have it by Wednesday morning!

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

That is true since the summit was a planned event and they must of hand to test the manufacturing line on a few hundred phone, why not give them out. I think I am just thinking about it to much. I hope they are through the production and ready to be shipped.
Because i have been told twice now from Nokia USA that no later than two weeks into October.

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

It's probably easier to keep track of pre-production units than retail units when they need to get them back in 6 months. ;)

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

I think Nokia missed a big marketing opportunity. Why not look at Apple for things they do well, marketing. A big announcement of a release date or even better the phrase "and all this is shipping starting now".

You may not like Apple, but the do know how to put on a show.

And a little "wow" (to quote another campain) would not be bad.

I just read an article in the leading German computer magazine c't about Nokia (http://www.heise.de/ct/inhalt/2009/22/84/) and how the want to be a service oriented company. So I will repeat what I sad earlier: please Nokia, talk too us. Give us some news. We are the base making Maemo possible, we are all willing to help, but you need to talk to us.

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

Nokia does not give a rat about you and I. They are simply taking their time to avoid HUGE recall down the road. Personally, I'm patiently waiting for them to announce the release date of this N900 device.

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

Take the n97 for example, it took them 6+ months from announcement to release. Did that translate into no large issues on release? nope
- lens scratch defect
- stability issues on the first firmware
- panned by many non-fanboy reviewers

I would not assme longer release time equals increase in quality at Nokia

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

I think Nokia learnt a pretty short sharp lesson from the n97. I suspect they are doing everything in their power to make sure the n900 is not a repeat of that debacle.

Re: Did Your N900 Ship Today?
 

Unfortunately one common problem is knowing where and when you can buy their products. I'm particularly confused that they still do this "In select markets" stuff.

It's been the same story with a number of Nokia devices - it gets announced, you hear rumours of release dates, as you get closer you keep checking the dates on various places and they keep moving about. Even when it gets to "release date" you find you can get it on ebay from Hong Kong but not anywhere else. Eventually some weeks/months after you thought you could get it you can buy it through regular channels.

Nokia only seems to communicate release information to its channel partners with no thought for end consumers.