Originally Posted by cBeam

Here is my take on the smartphone / mobile market and Nokia / Maemo:

Apple:
When Apple introduced the iPhone the established handset makers were sleeping on their wheels. Apple (with marketing and hype) successfully conquered the high end smart phone market, created an integrated Apple ecosystem (iTunes, app store), and many customers love it. The iPad is just another attempt to increase the Apple ecosystem by trying to establish quasi standards for content delivery (iPod for music, iPad for books and magazines). This is especially true for the US markets and less so for overseas markets.

Google:
With established handset makers still sleeping or too slow, Google realized that there is a danger to their business model (=delivering effective targeted ads via the web). In the rapidly growing mobile market Apple's closed ecosystem could lock Google out of the ad market by accessing internet functions via specific apps instead via a plain browsers (think face book app, twitter app, youtube app etc.). Google brought Android, which was better suited for touchscreen devices than Symbian, Win mob or other OS'es for smart phones.

(Palm is irrelevant because its minuscule market share, RIM is mostly a North American email phenomenon and not really a threat to Google).

Coming to Nokia:
After taking a hefty nap they finally woke up.

Symbian is wide spread and powerful, but in its current versions outdated and difficult to use. However they have a huge installed base, and there is no reason why Symbian should not be able to be updated and upgraded and become competitive with Apple / Android. Nokia is right to invest heavily into Symbian, albeit they are a bit late.

Maemo:
I guess Nokia is surprised by its relative success in the market place with the N900. This might have been really just thought as another iteration of a niche tablet, however users (and then Nokia marketing) pitched it as a competitor to the iPhone.

Here is where it gets murky:
Maemo needs a lot of TLC from Nokia to develop into a mainstream success. The phone applications are missing many functions and are not up to Nokia phone standards. Ovi maps (Maemo) are at least one generation behind Symbian.

However, the browser is second to none on smart phones.
This is good news for Google, as it diminishes the necessity for many specialized apps that the iPhone needs in order to be useful.

How will Nokia execute from here? They have a couple of choices.

Here is a realistic one (and I hope it is not the one they choose):
They set all their energy and talent on Symbian, and make it a great OS thus banking on the huge installed base. Trying to move customers from one Symbiam device to vastly improved Symbian devices. This leaves Maemo right in the corner without lot of attention.

Here is my preferred one: The convergence strategy using QT works and they position Symbian for the low and medium range, while they position Maemo as the mobile computer OS. This would mean Maemo gets a lot of attention and a stream of updates and upgrades.

I do not know what Nokia will do, and I do pay more attention to their actions than their announcements.

So far I cannot see that Nokia really invests a lot of TLC into Maemo. The firmware update for the N900 fixed some essential issues, but left out many necessary functional improvements. Free Ovi maps / turn by turn is not available yet for N900 and not on the roadmap (last I heard).

And lastly, if Nokia wants Maemo to be successful there needs to be a steady stream of updates and upgrades, which can only be delivered by using agile development principles. If they do waterfall and wait until Maemo 6, then I fear IDC's prediction might become true.

Just my personal thoughts ...

Originally Posted by Gadgety

If you look through the presentation they made to the financial community back in december, Nokia has already positioned Symbian to the midrange and lower, and Maemo as their "no compromise" platform.

Back in December the financial community did not believe Nokia's strategy but after today's profit and growth figures, mainly in the smartphones segment, Nokia's shares rose 10%.

For more about the Dec presentation check out my post here:

http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...9&postcount=16

Originally Posted by cBeam

Thanks, I just looked at your insightful post.

I really hope Nokia executes well on Maemo. They need to move fast as the competition (especially Android) is moving very fast. I am still not convinced that they do all they can to make Maemo successful. Here are some ideas (might have been discussed elsewhere):

- Make beta-firmware freely available for testing using a mandatory sign in / waiver process (as it will brick devices!).

- Establish a monthly rhythm for feature upgrades (does not necessarily have to be firmware, could be stand alone applications and enhancements to these applications).

- "Leak" potential features from "Maemo Labs" (<= does this exist?) using blogs, youtube, twitter, whatever.

- Release some accessories for the N900 and use releases to create some buzz about N900 / Maemo (dock, Nokia branded blue tooth (hi fi) speaker system, ...)

- ....

I really hope Nokia executes to make Maemo really successful. As I wrote in my earlier post I pay more attention to Nokia's actions than to announcements. Words are cheap nowadays...

Originally Posted by DaveP1

While I would not mind seeing any of your suggestions, I think that they would represent a decision by Nokia to avoid growing the Maemo market. My worry, every time I hear Nokia talk about Symbian, is that they view Maemo as strictly a test bed. They don't many phone models running Maemo because one or two will do (e.g. I suspect the N900 has a keyboard because of their N800/N810 experiment).

The problem is that Maemo may be and may continue to be Nokia's test lab. Any insights it provides will be fleshed out and polished in the Symbian world. For Linux geeks it won't really matter. Others might not want to live on the bleeding edge when it comes to their phone.