Without trolling - I really admire your trust. And now some arguments against it:

Nokia has got a lot of experience and a lot of resources (engineers, programmers, etc. etc.). They haven't released anything really revolutionary since longer time. They can't even provide support for Linux for own products.

And now they have prepared N900. It has got nice features, but also lack of various things. Imagine, that Nokia will resolve some of problems during next few months. Imagine, that N900 will be finally available in shops. What will be future ? This will be the only one Maemo 5 device. In the some time it will be possible to buy 20-30 devices with Android. Some very cheap (half or less of N900 price).

What next ? Do you believe, that next device (I remind: probably the only one Maemo in 2010 !) will have everything ? Before you will answer - remember, that it will be created by Nokia's department A (however we will name it) and department B will want to sell as many Symbian devices as possible (Nokia already invested a lot of money into it). In short words: Maemo device won't be too good or it will have extremly high price. How many Android devices will be in the market in the end of 2010 ? 40 ?

Of course, Nokia will sell a lot of Maemo devices. It's "mass scale effect". But I don't believe, that they will be able to make something more than high buzz. Not after this what I have seen here during few last months

I don't particularly care how popular the N900 and related tablets get... as long as Nokia keeps selling them.

I just hope it's profitable *enough* for Nokia not to discontinue. There is nothing like Maemo in the market... true linux in my pocket. It can't be beat.

I don't expect Maemo to overcome Android or the iPhone. I just hope that for those of us that it appears the device truly calls to.. it remains around.

You have to keep in mind how product life cycles work. S60 is approaching end of life, so you can't expect anything revolutionary. No company can have the hottest product every year - it's just too expensive. And frankly, it hasn't been that long since Nokia had the initiative.

Linux support won't happen overnight. The new desktop apps use Qt, but a lot of the functionality is still based on old code.

40 Android devices doesn't mean 40 times the sales. More likely, Nokia will be more profitable with only two Maemo devices: one with a keyboard, the other one without. Much easier to support, and manufacturing gets more economy of scale.

40 devices makes much more sense when your target audience is shopping based on colors, shapes and fashion. This group isn't going to be wowed by their kernel. The split between Maemo and Symbian means that Maemo's design can target powerful hardware more aggressively than Android can, while Symbian is better optimized to excel at using cheap hardware in hundreds of devices with small variations.

Qt will provide a common API. So, to Maemo users, it doesn't really matter whether Maemo is 10%, Android 30%, and S^4 60%, because as far as developers are concerned, Nokia has 70%. For those 10%, Maemo will do a better job than Android, and for the rest Symbian^4 will be great. In practice, Maemo users will have "won" with smaller market share, because it's both better suited to our needs than Android AND enjoys the scale benefits of Symbian due to Qt.

This is not to say that I don't hope Maemo will beat Android's market share on its own, but it'll be difficult against cheaper mass market devices that are worse than the N900.

Well.. TBH...

I do see 40 devices attracting more developers than 2. And I do see it increasing sales.. because of simply variety in what people are after. Plus, a lot of those phones will be much cheaper than a normal smartphone, yet running a smartphone OS.

Plus, there are people like me. Unlike a lot of you, I will have a T-mobile unlimited/unlimited plan with, or without the N900. So the n900 is an added cost for me from a $149.99 g1 to a $540 N900. Nothing will change as far as my monthly bill goes... and besides: people are impressed by initial prices.. someone will buy a $90 phone + 2 year contract before buying a $400 phone with your choice of contract.

T-mobile (US) even made this last option even more profitable, by offering "no-contract' plans that are cheaper than the contract plans.. but you don't get phone discounts. Yet I still people buying the cheaper up-front cost, and carrying the weight over 2 years, than fronting a higher price-tag and saving money 18 months from now.

Just a personal opinion though.

hmmm, but some people call S60 5th Symbian^1 and we will have Symbian^2, Symbian^3. S60 can be named differently, but it won't be definitely on end of life

In my opinion, last innovation was visible with N95 or somewhere then. Current N97 or N97 mini or other are in some aspects light years after other manufacturers.

Nokia could use old projects and improve them - for example what sense has putting smaller batteries to new "N" than batteries in old one ? Put the same or a little better and with some improvements hot product is available. Add simple good done things (like low SAR) and bestseller will be available...

The problem is different in my opinion - whatever will be released, it will be sold...because it's Nokia. They don't need to respect customer needs now.

Support for Linux is connected with very various things. People were asking Nokia for FULL backup/restore for example (or help with specs) since 1999....and according to my info nothing was done up to today.

Yes and no. Imagine, that some manager in Nokia decide - we are not interested in continuation or we will totally break compatibility. With 40 devices it's more difficult to make it. This is the biggest problem.

QT will provide the same API in theory. In practice I think, that there will be some differences. Years of programming say it clear

In my opinion, Nokia will loose market - people will rather select one of 40 Android devices (many of them are available NOW) than non-popular Maemo or non-attractive Symbian.

Of course, these two Maemo devices can be enough for some group of people. And they will defend them and don't allow to say wrong word about them. But in more wide look (in my opinion of course) - Nokia is experimenting on customers and doesn't have clear plan and vision for this platform. It looks like project done with small budget.

Good points and don’t forget they have to remove the chrome around the flash which bounces light back into the lens ruining some flash shots

1. capacitive - disagree
I am happy with the resistive screen, it's pretty good. I watched someone who'd never used a smartphone with a touch screen and he didn't even realise there was a stylus, he had no problem with it at all.

2. slimmer - partly agree
as someone said, lose the battery cover, make the battery be structural?

3. OLED - partly agree
provided that display longevity isn't compromised, some oleds have been shown to have a short lifespan compared to lcd

4. size - agree, sort of.
although people get used to the smaller size of the 900 compared with 8x0, I'd prefer the larger size. or produce two variants, a 3.5" and a 5"?

5. metal construction - disagree
provided good quality plastics used with some metal structure, then it can be strong and light; too much metal causes problems in getting radio functions (3g, bluetooth, wifi, GPS) to be sensitive.

6. keyboard number row - agree
I had a zaurus 6000 and an 860 and then 3x00. the first had no number row, and I found it was far more frustrating to use and I neglected it. I think I'd rather have no keyboard at all than an annoying one, and use an external keyboard if I had to. Certainly with my various Palm devices I only got out the foldup full-sized keyboards on very rare occasions, but I was pretty good at graffiti!

7. xenon flash - sort of agree
I would prefer to ensure the camera sensor worked well in low light, and improve the LED flash

8. increase camera pixel count - TOTALLY DISAGREE
if we wanted to pander to marketing types, we'd buy an iphone, but we are engineers and scientists who understand that the number of pixels matters not compared to the quality of the lens and the size of the sensor given the space constraints.

9. video out rez - sort of agree
drop composite and add mini HDMI - I took a look at Canon G1 camera today and the connector is pretty small. or ensure usb host is good enough to support DisplayLink devices and have some damn good drivers!!

10. compass/magnetomer - agree
a full six-axis accelerometer and a compass would be good

11. slide - no comment
it seems quite good to me

12 & 15. gesture area & bezel - not sure
A modest bezel is good so you can put it face down. not too big - I find the n800's chunky one can be a nuisance at the edg, preventing use of fingers on scroll bars.
And extend the screen for soft buttons, as suggested, yes.

13. bigger battery - agree sort of
see above about dropping the cover.. maybe offer an inductive charge option?

14. wide angle lens/low light - part agree, part disagree
better low-light, yes please. wide angle? well, it depends what you're doing, for casual party photos wide angle is good to get as much of a scene in as possible, but I prefer to get into the action and crop tightly so a wide angle lens isn't much good, and it's lousy for portraits big nose phenonemon). I'd rather have a high quality lens with modest zoom range too rather than a marketing-driven numbers game leading to crap photos with lots of colour and geometric distortion.


also...

I would like a better kickstand, I find the one in the n800 to be pretty useful.

I would like USB host, done properly.

I would like stereo audio line in, if possible: split the audio jack into headphone and mics.

the mini HDMI I proposed should also offer HD audio too, not just 16 bit stereo 48kHz!!

Consider too an external GPS antenna connector for car kit dock?

I don't care for capacitve screen, and engadget is a bunch of untalented iPhone/Android groupies (also called usefull idiots), that have lost all journalistic impact. Seriously.

Slimmer - yes. Amoled is nice for TVs in dark rooms, but for a phone going to be used outdoor it is simply poor design.

Screen size, I agree 100%. 4" minimum IMO. Metal - NO. I mean, if it was made of gold or silver, then metal is a luxury, and some high end titanium alloy would be cool. Cheap nickel plated steel (this is what is used, looks exactly like polished stainless) is as low end as it gets, and stainless is for kitchen items. High quality modern plastic is more high tech than the internals, and stronger and lighter than steel (for this use). This obsession with metal (regardless of quality) is as ignorant as it gets IMO, both technologically and "quality" vise.

I wouldn't mind more keys, and would prefer xenon instead of LED. Pixel count is enough as it is, more would not be better. I like the bevel, it protects the screen. Larger battery is allways nice.

After you have pressed shift and crtl, what do you press next to get a pipe | symbol? Whatever it is, it's pretty awkward on a little keyboard. A right-shift would be handy. Or just use the virtual keyboard for the special symbols.

This thread should be named:

15 hardware changes that would have made N900 another "that could have been a great device" – [15 essential hardware features for a successor that would sell less then the predecessor]

btw hi all long time lurker, Resistive screens ROCK!