The more I use this the more I don't understand why this is always hailed as a "geek" device. This isn't the OpenMoko Freerunner!!

All of my non-geek friends are drooling over the N900.

Granted, my dad probably wouldn't know what the do with the N900, but he'd also have the same clueless expression with an iPhone. Basically, if you can use an iPhone, you can easily use an N900 -- I've seen it with my own two eyes, so don't tell me that isn't true. Hell, even iPhone users don't have a screen devoted to headshots of their contacts that they can press to make a call. That's extremely UN-geeky.

I have Evernote, Qik, Hermes, etc downloaded and all work fine. From the iPhone world, I'd love the following apps:

* Budget software (ideally something that links with Mint.com)
* Shazam

That's pretty much it. Everything else I want, from a blogging client (MaStory) to an all-in-one sharing program (PixelPipe) exists and works great.

Soon, Sygic will release their app and mapping will be taken care of as Ovi Maps blow -- and will do so for a long time, I believe.

So, again - why the geek tag?

Because its strong points are appreciated mostly by geeks. Non geeks are likely not interested in what makes the N900 a superior device. They probably care more about the phone, the music, the GPS, the availability of a large number of apps, and other similar aspects of the device. On those areas, the N900 is not outstanding, and in fact trails other devices. See here for a more detail explanation:

http://www.themaemo.com/and-now-for-...iller-feature/

I would think the N900 title would be: For geeks NOT newbies, unless the newby is oblivious to smartphone functions or could care less.

Great media and web device, but about as phone centric as my laptop.

I have to respectfully disagree -- but as long as we're both happy with our N900s, who cares!

Yes, its ridiculous. N900 is less geeky than any laptop computer.

Maybe because Nokia has publicly stated that the N900 is the first Maemo phone and meant for the "technology enthusiast" ?

I don't know what they are so afraid of. After the upcoming firmware update they should market the hell out of this thing. I have very "cool" female friends who were playing with my phone and loving it. Of course they want to buy one and laugh when I tell them how much it costs.

Having instant messenger support with relevant protocol support out of the box is one thing (no MSN/AIM support? They combined have some 100 million times more users than jabber and Ovi combined...).

Sadly you have to install and tune the basic things out of the box before the device turns into usable. Many ordinary users are not frankly willing to do that.

it's not much of a tuning for msn out of the box, i don't think apple had the same criticism for it's out of the box usage. i find it's easier for people to look at a negative and forget all the innovations out of the box. Apple had alot of major innovations. MS had alot of innovations. we'd not be where we are today if people just looked at the negitive and said ordinary users won't do that.
why would nokia scrap it's own messaging system and leave it stagnate for someone elses? their goal is to build their own services and out of the box support is the best way.

Also aim is mainly a NAM service, MSN is used widely in europe. but in india and china where there are billions of people to cater for there's major opportunity for nokia to expand on it's services and they are doing it.

sorry for going off topic there, now thats out of my system. i think they are calling it a geek device because of it's early stage that maemo is at and isn't as user friendly as they would like it to be.

maemo 6 device or their second maemo 5 device will be more user friendly and less geek centric. (that is my understanding of it from what they have been saying with regards to the future.)

Edit:
i also think it's more of a media reference to it being a geek phone then anything else. reviewers like to sound cool too and coin terms and labels on devices.

short answer:

because its linux.