are you kidding me? Maemo is essentially a stripped down debian. You can basically install Debian as a Maemo app which gives access to thousands of applications including things like openoffice.
Im sure you can install a lot of apps... but how many are actually going to be useful for a mobile phone? Androids app market is pumping out lots of awesome specifically tailored apps at 100mph, and it will only increase as it cements itself as the top phone OS over the next couple of years. Maemo is going to get nowhere near this level of dedicated support.
this is gonna sounds like the wrong post on this thread, but how much stuff do you need on your phone? - isn't it supposed to go "drin-drin" and the occasional "beep"?
haven't I seen that one coming... seriously though, how much time do you spend browsing internet on your phone? and how fast do you really need it to be? I always thought that a mobile phone should be just like what it says on the tin, i.e. a phone that you take with you without the need of a very long lead. if i want a phone that resemble a laptop i just get a laptop
BTW, this comes from someone who has a iPhone 3GS , so i'm not a technophobic
Ok, and now tell me... how long has Android been out compared to Symbian etc? In a 5 years or so, maybe less, Android will be the market leader... it will pervade almost every device going, and there will be so much money and development pumped into it that it guarantees it's success. Every major mobile manufactuerer is now basing devices on it, and pumping a serious, serious amount of cash and R&D into it. Symbian will die a slow and painful death (and rightly so), and Maemo will lag behind. It's a given.
dumping a crapload of money into something doesn't mean it will succeed. Palm was at 47% marketshare in 2006 and after pumping so much money in Palm OS and WebOS that they almost went broke, they're now at a stable 7%.
I'd be very surprised if Nokia had more than 10% market share in the smart phone segment in 2-3 years. There's simply now way the market can take another large competitor. In the end I'll be iPhone OS vs. Android for the general population and some presence of the Blackberry for corporate usage. The rest - Symbian, Maemo, WebOS, Windows Mobile will be gone or have become a niche-product within a very very short time.
1. Most apps on the iPhone are made since it doesn't have a fully functional web-browser or flash, whereas the N900 does. Hence half those apps are meaningless.
2. People are already porting lots of cool linux apps to the Maemo UI, so actually there will be enough apps. And Nokia is making the cool ones that people need.
3. How many of those apps do people actually use? I bet 5-10 at most.
I don't see # apps as an issue, unless you're a teenager or an Apple fanBoy; actually there's little diff btwn the two. What do most of us need: web, email, im, maps, schedules, music, games.
Although I do agree that Android will be bigger tham Maemo. But I don't like the Javaness of Andriod. I know they've released a c/c++ sdk, but it's still a limiting layer.
As for capacitive vs resistive, I have no opinion.
In the end, it's good there is iPhone, Android, Maemo. They serve the needs of different people. iPhone is for the blondes. Android will become mainstream. Maemo will also become mainstream I predict, but will be the choice for geeks and nerds.
Yup. For me, email is essential on the phone, I use it to keep up and co-ordinate with friends. I never bother planning ahead, if I have drinks somewhere, I know the meeting point and time is on an email I can get to.
I can find the address using my web browser and then locate it using GPS on my phone.
When I arrive at El Lokal and find that all the ****ers have already left (I'm looking at you HashBrown!) I can send a text message to find out which clubs people are at (too loud to talk).
For me, the E71 I have does all of this and is quite good. The only downsides are lack of support for linux sync and over the air sync (I'd like to sync calendar, contacts etc. directly with my website) and the camera and video are crap.
But connected video/cameras are the future, even though I have a DSLR, I often take photos with my phone cos I can email them to the right place immediately without the hassle of starting a computer, transferring files etc. I wish more 'serious' cameras/camcorders would support email over bluetooth/WIFI by default.
As far as the cameras go: agreed - I never saw the appeal in producing crappy novelty-shots with a subpar cell-phone camera. No matter how many megapixels they squeeze into the tiny camera bodies, the pictures will always come out crappy (or crappier) compared to DSLRs and more advanced pocket cameras. But perhaps I'm just old-fashioned.
I think they're good. You're never going to carry a DSLR with you everywhere like a mobile phone - and a photo with a mobile is better than no photo at all!
Since when did you need a crystal ball to make an accurate prediction based on a lot of evidence? Many analysts are predicting the same thing for Android. HTC are pushing it hugely, SE are starting to soon, Samsung are migrating towards it... almost all the key players will soon have the majority of their line-up on Android.
That's subjective, so we'll agree to disagree there. I use a lot on Symbian for various things, not all the time of course, but enough that I would notice not having them installed.