Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

A walled garden approach highly enables a large install base. The two are strongly coupled. The bar is much higher for an open approach to achieve the same thing. Commercial FUD is largely to blame for that. We've seen the proof on this very site, when potential buyers drop in with the usual laundry list of misinformative talking points (ie, "Linux is more vulnerable to attack because it's open!"). Thank you, Steve Ballmer.

But I think the MeeGo approach has the potential to overcome this. It will all come down to execution. Skepticism abounds due to past missteps. At this point, Nokia, Intel and others need to perform flawlessly for MeeGo not to follow prior examples... not just theirs, either. They have a lot of inherited albatrosses to shed.

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

One truly awesome response daperl.

I'm aware of the Google Talk plugin working, which is for me, halfway to where I need it to be. GTalk + Skype and maaaaan, I'd be one eating crow but happy camper.

And to be honest, I don't think the iPhone 4G will be my answer either - as much grief as I give folks about the lack of acceptance of the "walled garden", it's been rubbing me the wrong way too. In fact, I think I've openly stated that a few times here and there in this thread. Ultimately, I truly wanted it to be the N900 that would be my answer.

Maybe the next outing. I just would love the developers and the consumers to get what they're lacking from Nokia.

Again daperl... awesome post. Thanks for sharing.

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

I think many users did not, pre-purchase, read up on the '900 or sit down and consider that this a new venture which translates into bugs, challenges, shortcomings, etc. Many, I suppose, had pre-concieved ideas that this would be an iPhone killer from day 1 and do everything from mow the lawn to putting the kids to bed at night.

If you read the forums, at times there is a distinct air of mass hysteria amongst users and some devs/'experts'. The threads of calm and appeals for patience and understanding are lost.

Mature users, imo, don't rant and rave against Nokia or blame or whine, I think that they are the quiet readers/lurkers, knowing that at the end of the day, what needs to happen will happen and when it does happen, it will be good ;)

The rest, well...they want to be heard...regardless. :p

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

I agree, they should have hit harder and faster perhaps by having more faith in maemo as a smartphone and funding and hiring to implement the missing phone features. I do think they were caught off guard with the reception to maemo 5, symbian was their main platform until maemo showed that it can compete in the (smart)phone market too.

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

I am beginning to think there should be a huge sticky somewhere saying "READ THIS BEFORE BUYING AN N900".

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

Agree in principle, but that's the slippery slope toward *official support* :eek: :D

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

It has been said before and I will say it again: This thread is NOT about N900 but rather if and when nokia will be able to compete in the smart-phone market. Read the link on page 1...

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

I'm curious to know what the "much, much more" is. I've never been on a high-end Symbian phone and the idea that it can do much more than other smartphones is a surprise. What are the things it can do that others -- like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android -- can't?

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

I'm talking about both real 3G video calls and IP based ersatz videocalls. I'm not aware of $2-per-second offerings. It's either included in the base package or costs up to max 30 cents per minute for the cheap tariffs.

You seem to assume it didn't take off for whatever timing reason you give. I cannot follow you here because it did take off and is used. What I was trying to get across is that I find it likely people will celebrate Apple's new feature even though they themselves have been using it for years.

Re: “Everyone else has caught up and Nokia has been left behind,”
 

Because phone stack is closed and those features couldn't be integrated into main phone functionality.

If phone stack in N900 was completely open, MMSs could be flawlessly integrated into phone experience by Open Source community. Ditto for *# numbers.

Note difference: for iPhone MMSs were *completely* impossible for *several* years. For N900 they were doable after few weeks.

Sure, I agree that "community" under-delivered in several aspects but in some of them I could lay blame at the Nokia's door. Most important IMO lack of proper and easy to setup developer environment and poor documentation. This thing is being fixed now, partially thanks to Qt.

Other important aspect is incummunicando from Nokia regarding near, middle and far future of platform. And here unfortunately I see little change.