That editorial sucks for several reasons. Nokia is not exclusively committed to WP7.
Nokia has committed to 1 MeeGo device per year because it’s not meant to be a mass market device (anymore) same as the N900 I’m on right now. It’s a “disruption” phone that is more for Linux nerds and techies who don’t want to be limited by closed source operating systems. The future is only grim if you start with the premise that Nokia is trying to make these devices main stream for the American market; which is totally wrong.
If Nokia isn’t fully invested in MeeGo and Qt, why should you be?
This is where he goes wrong. Even if Nokia were to totally give up on it, MeeGo isn’t Nokia; it’s Intel. And Intel is solidly behind it as well as the MeeGo community which drives innovation and development. There are many devices planed, not just phones, which are running MeeGo. This phone simply skins MeeGo for use as a phone. And MeeGo is essentially Linux.
Nokia hasn’t supported my N900 in over a year but because it’s a community driven device and OS, updates keep coming out for the phone because the community keeps improving it. Instead of waiting for Apple, Google or Microsoft to fix bugs and add features the community just does it.
The writer is also thinking from an American standpoint and not a global one. WP7 is simply replacing Symbian, and MeeGo is an extension of Maemo. 99% of Nokia phones are Symbian and never made it in the U.S. Nokia only makes 1 phone (the N900) that runs Maemo.
Now the plan originally was to gradually phase Symbian phones to MeeGo, but at some point in the past few years America began driving global phone trends and not Europe. So Nokia figures it has a better shot with Windows in the now much more important American market (that Nokia needs to finally get into to get back on top) than it did with a transition to MeeGo. And they’re probably right.
But America isn’t the only market.
As for the functionality / integration of Android apps, take a look for yourself. This video is running on an N900:
More here: http://www.myriadgroup.com/Device-Manufacturers/Android-solutions/Alien-Dalvik.aspx
I’ve seen my phone running Android, iOS and pretty much any other OS’s applications that the community sees a demand for. And because there is no single “app store” controlled by the manufacturer, there isn’t anyone to pull down software that might “piss them off” a-la-Apple. These “repositories” are sorted by different levels of testing & completion so you know what software might work flawlessly and what might still be in the testing or development phase.
It’s not for everyone, and won’t be a phone you see your sister and her friends drooling over, but those who know what it’s all about will appreciate it’s capabilities.
