What I would say is that the three "killer app" things that the N900(and N770+) do, which the Ipod Touch/Iphone -doesn't- do is:
1. Be able to download files onto the device(I tried downloading an(unsupported) FLV file onto my friends Ipod Touch, no can do says Safari).
2. Be able to access data from any computer via USB(even a small partition). Most every other device has this functionality, but not Ipods. What use is 32GB if you can't -use- it. Sure, you can load music etc. on via Itunes, from one(maby two) computers... but every PC has to have Itunes. And you aren't gonna find that in a School's computer lab or library, or public PC kiosk, etc.
3. Multitasking. True Multitasking. My N770 can do this, and this was made 4 years ago. Why can't your shiny Iphone do it?



With your N900, all of that is possible. I can take my N900(or N770 which I currently use), plug it into -any- PC or Mac, and transfer files on or off. I don't need to keep a separate flash drive to store documents, and often times I can read those documents directly on my device!


To be honest, I could come up with a number of other reasons why the Iphone/Ipod Touch is entirely useless, but most of them are reasons that your friend could easily ignore etc.

-Rob

Yes I'm not talking about the screen and cellular. Nokia always has been better at cellular. I'm comparing to hardware CPU + GPU + Compass.

N900 has hardware keyboard, fm transmitter, ir, PowerVR SGX 530 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 2.0, the possibikity of supporting micro sdxc, and resistive touchscreen (which i prefer ), other phones dont. Howevwer the best think is Maemo, the biggest reason i bought n900.

lol you are so ****ing dumb! I can't believe this! i mean are you serious? are you really complaining about this?!? so for idiots like you:

YOU CAN'T COMPARE THE HARDWARE OF A PHONE THAT CAME OUT IN 2009 WITH A PHONE THAT CAME OUT A FEW DAYS AGO! YOU CAN'T!
that's like comparing a iphone 4 with a phone that is coming out in 2011!

and if you don't know: THE BEST THING IN THE N900 IS NOT THE HARDWARE IT'S THE SOFTWARE! THERE IS _NO_ PHONE ON THIS PLANET, WHERE YOU CAN DO SO MUCH WITH! NO PHONE THAT IS SO OPENED LIKE THE N900!

so you see, that your comparism is useless and it's just about complaining and hating against the N900. so please STOP TROLLING!

Very good job comparing specs of products that barely have been released with specs of a product released almost 8 months ago. Thanks for your thread, quite useful indeed.

Oh yes, the app centric model, just as the cloud becomes more important, html can do more and more and fragmentation is becoming a bigger and bigger problem in the mobile space, the app centric model is the future. That is NOT true.

Listen, when the iPhone came out, it made fun of apps, because it couldnt do it. Now they have lots of apps, its the future. Its BS. Its just another way to let people get locked down in your ecosystem. Do you think companies will just keep make iPhone apps only, or Android? Of course not. 9 out of 10 times a good web based app can do the same.

You know, I like the fact the N900 has a filesystem. I like that the N900 has a Qwerty. I like that the N900 runs Maemo, which I like better than the rest. Its multitaksing is superb. The browser is excellent. The apps are free, in large part. If those things are important to you, the N900 is still a fantastic device, especially @ 900 Mhz. The fact that your friend needs apps, does not detract from the quality of your device. Let your friend show you how he can quickly see which modes of communication are possible for entries in his phonebook. I see skype gmail msn etc, live or not. I can see if should text them, call them, videoskype them, whatever. No other OS gives me that currently.

like others have pointed out.........
the N900 has decent hardware with regard to WHEN it was released...what really matters for me is the maemo OS, which is really amazing imho
I prefer..... extensions and plugins over separate apps for IM,contacts,conversations and similar stuff...,physical keyboard over onscreen kb, great web browsing experience (with flash), true multitasking, and plenty more reasons.....yes it does have its shortcomings as well..
the iOS and android are both great platforms...but maemo suits me better.
you should do the same ..........buy something which suits your needs/wants rather than your friends

good discussion here guys
i think some good points were mentioned that i can use as ammo

he says for just about everything theres an app for that and its constantly getting for apps so its constantly gaining new functionality unlike n900..?

The sad thing are not the N900 specs, but that a fringe device is what gets to represent Nokia, because the reigning official flagship, the N97 is so far behind (take a look at the BB devices listed, hardware-wise those are borderline-ridiculous already), and the N8 also does pretty bad spec-wise on these charts, even though it might turn out to be a good jack-of-all-trades. The problem is that there should be a N9 listed there - the EVO/Galaxy S are already shipping and seem to be matching right now what we know about the N9. If there will be no hardware buzz generated soon about the N9, it will be real hard to do later (seriously, who will drool about a 1GHz OMAP3 and 800x480 in 6 months ?).

Unlike ? Do we not have apps ? Did we not get stuff like skype video call ? One might dispute the AMOUNT/quality of apps/updates, but it's silly to say that the N900 is not getting additional functionality either through apps or firmware updates.