Nokia smartphone-cum-web tablet re-emerges
Maemo-based smartphone or N810 successor?
Old rumours that Nokia is looking to replace Symbian with the Linux-derived Maemo OS on it smartphones have been re-stoked following publication of what’s thought to be the phone firm’s latest smartphone-cum-internet tablet.
Nokia's N900 (above) could replace the N810
The latest device is branded the N900 and, according to the mole that leaked the image to website Be Geek, is set to replace Nokia’s N810 internet tablet – reviewed here.
If true, the N900 should also be considered an internet tablet, meaning Nokia’s decision to run Maemo on the device – which hasn’t been confirmed, we should point out – is nothing new.
Maemo has been around since 2005 and was originally designed for use on Nokia internet tablets.
However - and this is where things get confusing – the N900 was also tipped as a possible N97 successor back in May.
And if this is the case then it may be an indication that Nokia hopes to replace Symbian with Maemo on its smartphone devices – as was rumoured earlier this month.
In terms of features, the mole said that the N900 sports a 3.5in display, an integrated GPS chip and accelerometer, and a 5Mp camera. The N900 is also thought to include 32GB of Flash storage.
Few additional features can be gleaned from the image, although given that the pictured caller appears to be wearing Nokia’s BH-604 headphones, it’s reasonable to assume that the N900 supports music streaming over Bluetooth.
The Finnish phone giant is currently preparing for next week’s Nokia World event, where the N900 could well be officially launched alongside Nokia’s first laptop, the Booklet 3G.
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COMMENTS
Get your facts right.
I don't know where half you get your facts from, but it obviously isn't from anyone who understands what is going on.
Nokia is not dropping Symbian. If anything it is only being repositioned in the market. None of the browsers used in any Nokia product are from Opera. And the N900 is obviously totally different hardware than the N97 since it is running the OMAP3 (Cortex A8) platform just like the iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre. The N97 is running the older OMAP2 platform (ARM 11) like all previous S60 phones.
Software patents
Notice how they get their browser from Opera, their OS from Linux, now their Gui is Maemo, yet their lobbyists still pretends that Nokia is a major software R&D company and needs software patents to survive!
Wanna be patent troll, spent too much effort trying to patent their 2 lines of code, and too little effort actually developing software.
Money misspent.
Sorry...
..just found the "cum" headline too funny...
Mine's the one with the book: "How to be childish at your age" by I.P.Freely
Phone or tablet... or does it matter?
There does seem to be a measure of uncertainty on the form factor here - will the N900 (or whatever its name is) be "an N810 with 3G and a 5MP Carl Zeiss camera", or more like "an N97 running Maemo"?
I would personally be a bit more inclined to upgrade my trusty N95 for the N900 if the former were true, but maybe there's not much between the two options - the N97 isn't that much smaller than I remember the N800 being. That said, I'd want a screen resolution like the N8xx series (i.e. 800x480) - anything smaller, and the N95 is safe for a while longer.
Well, we'll know in a week or two - anyone heard if T-Mobile UK may be offering the N900?
