the Nokia N900 re-view
Not a review, you see, but a re-view.
Quick! Drop all of your "this should be the xPhone killer" thoughts about this device right now.
Also quick! Drop all of your "meh, yet another review of this thing that they used to call Internet Tablet - what does that even mean?!" thoughts right now too.
Ok. History.
Yes, I guess more people found out about Nokia's now-defunct Internet Tablet line of products since the N900 was announced than ever before. Which is ironic. Also ironic is the fact that these things (the 770, the N800, the N810) were devices primarily intended as a 'bridge' between the small-screened smartphone and the not-quite-so-portable-after-all laptop. Something in between. With a big touchscreen. That had a desktop-class (no, that really doesn't mean anything, don't worry) web browser.
Do these definitions remind you of something? Something announced in January of this year, perhaps, after being rumored for years (and, don't tell anyone, after being first considered for creation by God...umm sorry, the company that makes it...umm no, sorry, I didn't mean the ODM, you know, the fruit guys...anyway, first being considered *after* the first rumors were already out there)?
It turns out that others have done the pad (sorry, but with that name...) way before, and way better. Oh wait. The same is true for, well...everything else fruity.
Deep breath.
iNternetTablet. That better?
Add a qwerty keyboard (on the N810), cut the screen in half, so, you know, it actually won't be embarrassing to carry around *outside* the house... and you've got yourself one of Nokia's Internet Tablets.
No one got the point of these devices.
Few people get it today, looking back.
No market demand and all that.
And OMG, why would Nokia, I mean, a phone company (bear with me), make something that isn't a phone?, people cried, in their rubber boots. And cried. This would be a mass-market success story, if only you could fit a SIM card in there somewhere.... Right now, it's only a geek toy, but boy, if it were a phone...
Unlike other more fruitful companies, the crazy Finns have this unwieldy habit of listening. And that they did.
So there. We added phone capabilities. You happy now?
They weren't.
See, what happened was this needed to be a cult item. To fight against the other cult. Crusades and stuff. People never learn.
So has it killed anything?
Will it kill anything?
L O L.
Well, it may not kill the fruitPhone, but this is the death of Symbian.
Mmmyeah....
Riiight....
Always with the killing. Always with the dying. Jesus.
So is the N900 any less nichey than its grandparents?
By 1%? By 10 %?
In the UK, helped by Vodafone's (seriously guys, for the umpteenth time, that's how you spell it! fo' real!) absolutely insane ads, it may become more than that. Anywhere else?
Have you looked at where Nokia is selling these? Or better, where it isn't? Last time I checked, dozens of countries just won't be getting any.
You know why that is? Because when you design something like this, you go through production planning. And you plan according to how many you think you'll sell. So, guess what Nokia planned for?
Hint: not mass-market hit.
And they made this awfully clear when they priced it ~$150 (and that's in the US, where electronics are cheap because so few people can afford them -at least I think that's why they're this disgustingly cheaper than anywhere else) over the N810. Now, I don't know what TI (STM/STE? Can't be Qualcomm or MediaTek just yet) charge for their chips these days, but surely that's not where the premium went in its entirety. Screen should be cheaper, since it's smaller and still resistive, camera is still more or less the same SKU since the N95.... I know Cortex A8s are expensive and hard to come by, but still...
So they priced it into a niche.
That should have given you another hint.
UI?
It's good. Can't argue with that. Oh wait, I can.
It's good if you use two fingers. And two hands. No portrait mode at launch...there's your other hint.
I know many people have said this before (not as comprehensively), but I just had to welcome everyone back to reality in my own way as well.
It's an Internet Tablet with phone capabilities. Nothing more, nothing less.
And that's just fine. With me at least. I don't want it to be a serial killer (yPhone and Symbian, remember?), I want it to be a gadget. Which it is.
But.
It's not a phone.
I've used it for about two weeks now (cheers, WOMWorld... I wish more A-list bloggers knew about what you're doing and considered describing it as an example worth following), and not once as a phone. Sorry. It's too heavy, and most importantly for me, too wide.
Bluetooth headsets, you say? If I had a BH-905, maybe. But I wouldn't wear that in public (hint:instant thief magnet). And I wouldn't be caught dead with a dongly headset.
So should I use the N900 as a landline replacement? Didn't think so.
You should then stop laughing at Nokia's defining it as a mobile computer. That's exactly what this is.
A mobile touchscreen computer. Which, unlike its competition (this is the point where you start calling me crazy if you've correctly identified what its competition is in my opinion), also has a qwerty keyboard. And is also a phone. And has a normal SIM slot (yup, call me crazy again since now you're 100% sure). And can multitask (and will blow your mind while multitasking, trust me on this one, all of you who pronounce Nokia "no-keee-ah"). And can be carried around without any hint of embarrassment.
Told you it was a re-view.
So will it kill the padding? No chance.
Does it best it though?
Tough to speak for all possible use cases (again, with a name like that, what do you expect?), but in my book (e-?), it should. At least it has the potential to.
Problem is, Nokia did realize they've had no success with the Internet Tablet branding and positioning, so they decided the N900 and adding the phone bit to it would be the right time to kill that. (the violent language has gotten to me)
So they stripped the Internet Tablet from its name, and then basically just sat there waiting. The cult-seekers did the rest, sadly turning it into episode 3478 of "nothing can kill the uPhone".
The "this is step 4 of a 5 step strategy" soundbite also didn't help, no matter how true it is. The "Maemo 6 will break compatibility because we've decided we should maybe, perhaps finally do something with Qt" part didn't help either. Yes, yes, I know, in the long run...blah blah...
On to the N920(?) then. Q3. Slate. I wouldn't get my hopes up for the branding and positioning to change. Another missed opportunity, perhaps. Sometimes it's just better to stick with an idea. Even if all the vocal early-adopters shout against it, if enough time passes, people will get used to it. Embrace it even, if you do everything else right. See because then you have the bragging rights for "we saw the potential here first". No one can take that away from you. Whereas being a wPhone-killer lasts for about 5 seconds, until the next one comes along. And fails.
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