Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

When should we see more apps migrated to the "safe" repositories? There are some decent apps in testing, but very little movement to where most consumers / users can get them.

Some general ones I think others are interested in:

1. Photo editing app (also include flat black paint to fix flash problem;) )
2. MMS feature
3. Improved codec support
4. Audio EQ
5. Better media apps
6. Games

The current app status would be an even bigger problem if Nokia was not slow out of the gate getting product into channels- more users waiting for apps to get frustrated. Then again, the slow start may actually hurt overall hardware sales.

We appear to kind of be in a "chicken & egg" situation, since great apps can drive hardware sales. At the current rate, a lot of people will get the N900 and be going "OK, now what?". Sure, the tech savvy are busy and network people are finding cool ways to use the device, but these fine people are almost certainly the minority of owners.

Not seeing a lot of commercial support or an aggressive proactive effort from Nokia. Everything is "early next year", which can be months.

New products like the N900 needs apps to create interest and for rubes like me to buy and create revenue in the N900's micro-economy.

Tip calculators, fart apps, font packs, etc do not count as "real" apps;)

Is the perceived hold up due to devs waiting for a Nokia FW update or due to the earlier memory management changes? The longer the delay, the more people will be tempted to go rogue and install from places the fine Maemo overlords have suggested people not to go to. People will be downing the red pill and may have an OD:eek: ;)

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

Applications are only moved from extras-testing to extras once they have enough votes to confirm they are safe and ready for end-users. So if you want to get more applications into extras; test out that software, point out bugs, and vote for ready software. Just don't vote for software just to get it out of testing.

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

To be honest the phone hasn't really "launched" until it is available via the carriers. After a month of being sold by the networks, I would expect there to be hundreds off apps in extras.

It is up to us who have the phone to help test the apps in testing and get them into extras!

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

I've been pondering how would you entice developers to the platform. Developers that already have a product that could either port or code for the Maemo platform.

I have a few niche apps, some mainstream, that would make me jump wholeheartedly to the Maemo platform. With the better camera, I'd love a tilt-shift app, have one on the iPhone. Or perhaps a few more location aware apps...

With that said, I'd love to see more apps. How would you get the people to the platform?

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

I don't know about devs waiting, etc. There is a quite a few interesting community projects going on. personally I'm currently trying to decide what to do as my next project. It's a big decision for me because I don't want to write applications that doesn't interest me for free. For example from your list games are the only one that I have interest in. For the others I have no interest or there's already good enough solution available for me. Maybe I should write some kind of logic / puzzle game.

What commercial devs are doing or are they waiting? your guess is as good as mine. We'll see after ovi store opens for Maemo.

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

Really should get me one so I could start testing them extras-testing applications, but all the stores say there's huge demand and so little supply :(

And what's that about the carriers? I see all the operators selling it here in Finland (well.. advertising at least, due to lack of availability)..

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

I got mine from my carrier. So it is launched. ;)

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

And that is the point - all over the forums are warnings for users not to go into the extras-testing or extras-dev which leads to less people testing.
Im happy to test, but not at the risk of bricking my device (I know its unlikely) but my personal fear is either corrupting the file system or filling the root file partition.
Id like to vote for a decent map solution - Ovi maps is too terrible to mention, I cant wait for maemo mapper

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

i will consider the n900 to be launched if every normal shop starts shipping them.

as long as nokia holds units back for shops that sell the n900 under the suggested retail price, i dont consider it launched.

Re: Light at the end of the tunnel for apps?
 

I would expect a huge surge of new apps / tested apps in about 2-3 months time. It's still very early days.
Phone hasn't even been out for a month to the public and even so, hardly anyone received theirs yet.