Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

Yes I agree with this for anyone getting an n900 now, but back in Dec, how excited were we all? Google wouldn't have helped then..

Since Meego, there has been a lot of people put off developing for the n900 as it is even more of a niche device.
I like my n900 and the community has written some great apps for it, but I can't deny that I am looking at the selection and ease of synchronisation my missus gets with her HTC desire, plus some of the apps with envy...
The whole maps issue is a nightmare, I wouldn't mind if I could use google maps, but seeing turn by turn on cheap nokia's that cost a fraction of what I paid for my n900 does make me angry. mass market or not, it is their flagship device..

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

Yeah you and southwalesboy make a good point. Its not healthy to have one OS dominate the market. For now iPhone and Blackberry (sort of!) are keeping up but I don't know what happens when one of the wins the race (and my prediction is Android). At least for now, if all phones battle in the Android market, it means they can only outdo eachother on hardware and UI which is great as there are some amazing new phones (and slates/tablets) coming out.

Also, I am not an Android fanboy, I simply don't like iPhones, Nokia have lost and Blackberry is boring. I'd love to see a Linux platform become a major player but it seems to late to enter the game as they will always be killed by the larger app stores

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

If my N900 would die, i would buy it again, so, who cares? ;)

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

when in doubt, use a car analogy...here goes

maemo/now meego, is akin to the racing technology of cars; it is a place to test and field trial cutting edge and sometimes wacky ideas to try to get the most out of what is available. Eventually, many of the features that we here have enjoyed in maemo since 2006 or so(and linux in general) will filter down into a mass market device in some reduced form, just as a race car crew may have first pioneered the use of some kind of crazy suspension, but then it finally was adaptable to mass market and better. While the racers were perfecting the suspension it sure was a rough ride sometimes :)

Just as with cars, this is acceptable to some people who might be mechanics or gearheads, you may suffer the rough ride if you appreciate what your cornering force is and know that you have the ability to tweak it to your hearts desire.

Anyway, Symbian is currently the mass market OS for Nokia and extremely suitable for most of the world apparently.

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

The really good thing about these threads is that they provide lots of learning opportunities.

*Goes to make Wikipedia search for Orville Reddenbacher*

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

Well, apparently, despite all the Anssi worship around here, in 2007 he was intent on copying the iphone

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/29/n...-no-seriously/

I guess maybe this was the n97 or something, but if his intent was really to copy iphone, he did not succeed.

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

There's plenty on ebay and if you are feeling adventurous get this too?

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

Wanting that is fine (it makes you innovate & strive to please your customers).

Achieving it is great for both manufacturer & consumer initially - after all, the product has managed to "please all the people, all the time", or has at the very least beaten the competition to death in a sales & marketing bloodbath.

Howver, it quickly then results in higher margins (so higher retail prices) and poorer support (no viable alternative, so like it or lump it). It breeds complacency, strangles R&D innovation and eventually results in a poorer offering to the customer until some game changing (price/functionality/service wrap) new entry "reboots" the market.

Far better to have several overlapping but distinct offerings, each with sufficient market share to ensure longevity & progress through healthy competition.

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

That would be MeeGo's role. Maemo was constrained in many ways (one model, one manufacturer, small team), but MeeGo *SHOULD* bring all that stuff you miss from Maemo at the scale of (at least) Android, but without being limited to a single class of devices.

It's not really about proficiency - sometimes it's just the wrong phone. That's why I asked if you ever used Linux - as your points were roughly what I hear when a long-time Windows users get to work with Linux boxes. It didn't really matter how experienced they were in Windows - in fact, often that experience worked against them as they expected a thing to work in one way, when in fact it did in another (as texrat says different != wrong).

It's all a question of scale. I struck me for example when you said Android brought Samsung out of obscurity - even before Android Samsung sold *shiploads* of phones (smartphones even), and even now, the Android/Galaxy sales are just a minority part in their overall business. It's just that they were not aiming at the gadget/app people as the target audience, and that's why you never heard of them prior to experimenting with Android.

PS. One tiny remark - Maemo was born loong before iOS and Android - not as a response to them (the N800 was already out when the iPhone was released and the N810 was released waaay before the first Android). If anything, the shame is that THAT advantage (especially considering the newly-rediscovered-by-Apple tablet market) was not capitalized upon.

Re: The end of the Nokia Smart phone dream
 

No. Wrong. Only way to measure if product has failed is to see it sales and feedback from device owners. Only one who sees these statistics is the seller itself. So you can only make vagues guesses how well something has succeed. And of course the problem itself is that how to measure and what is the scale itself.

If you try to make statement about failure then you need shitload of references and statistics from 3rd party sellers. Without those you are just yelling fool who can wear clown suit (like most of tech. bloggers and commentators in blogs, just bunch of fools who think that their opinion without arguments or references is worth something) :|

Only thing you can say is that device has failed FOR YOU. Big difference!

Yes it´s true that people should care. But you must realize that geek communities include often people who have loud voice and strong and clear opinions how they (and only they by themselves) want to use device and what they need. They do not entirely care at all what other people think about. To some point I respect this kind of attitude, but thing is that as group people tend to make more progress than as individuals. If you have fully open source device that drivers are fully open source then you could show finger to everybody and just start using OS what you like. Even code one by-self.

So it´s just different people around here. Sadly Nokia still seems to not completely understand that how it should feed this wonderful community with positive energy. IMO we should have different competitions (had one and it was great, but more Nokia involvement), marketing of different projects here and hacking contests, constantly running different kind of stuff. And also actually headhunting people around here directly, NOT just announcing jobs generally. Also starting little groups like GSC and giving them focus and mission and little pay. All different things to make big cycle to go around.

.edit
Also latest poll from peter at marketing is JUST kind of stuff what we need here. Ask and ALSO PROVIDE some results and how they are going to use them. IT really really makes people at least think that there is some meaning. Motivation motivation motivation. One thing that really troubles me is Brainstorm area that is great invention but it also needs much more input from Nokia. Just someone from Nokia should review some of those and say that WE DISCUSSED ABOUT THIS and BLAM people will keep on brainstorming and voting. Finally ask users details about some solution or just make statement that re-review in next 2 months etc. But for god sake do not leave them rotten.