More from Vegas
Our CEO just officially announced the N800. And the Skype, Rhapsody, and other plans we have. For my Nokia team: well done -- good stuff! People are really excited and unlike when launching 770, nobody is asking what the heck are you trying to accomplish! People now understand the strategy with internet tablets and our open source approach.
Then as a response to the comments on my previous post:
People ask about can they run N800 software on 770. The answer is unfortunately no. N800 has a different hardware (Omap 2420) and we just needed to optimize the software for N800. Our true intention is to separate hw and sw so that in the future we would have a better support over the different hardware releases. But this time we simply needed to prioitize our efforts and put all our energy into making the N800 happen on time.
We understand that this is not ideal but it was the best we could do this time.
So as of now
-we keep on selling and supporting 770s
-we expect many Maemo applications to be made available for both products
-hacking and development will be supported on both platforms
-Nokia will not integrate and make OS2007 available for 770
Then as a response to the comments on my previous post:
People ask about can they run N800 software on 770. The answer is unfortunately no. N800 has a different hardware (Omap 2420) and we just needed to optimize the software for N800. Our true intention is to separate hw and sw so that in the future we would have a better support over the different hardware releases. But this time we simply needed to prioitize our efforts and put all our energy into making the N800 happen on time.
We understand that this is not ideal but it was the best we could do this time.
So as of now
-we keep on selling and supporting 770s
-we expect many Maemo applications to be made available for both products
-hacking and development will be supported on both platforms
-Nokia will not integrate and make OS2007 available for 770
posted by Ari Jaaksi at 10:34 PM
55 Comments:
Damn, that basically sucks since I bought a 770 just over a week ago. Now Nokia's basically saying they're putting the 770 on hold to focus on the 800. I understand from a marketing point of view, but from where I'm standing it's a bit of a letdown :/
Same here. I bought my Nokia 770 just 2 months ago, believing there wouldn't be any new device for like 6+ months :(
Most of the people in my situation must feel really bad, not only because there is a new, much better device out there, but also because the price for the nokia 770 on the "used" (and new, too?) market is likely to drop very soon, and we payed a high price for it...
Will this be repeated when next model comes out? Do you drop N800 owners out of the cycle next year if new model comes out with OS2008?
I choosed N770 hoping for a longer support than other devices.
Now i fear i'll see a lot of good developpement for N800 and nothing for the ones who buy their N770 lately.
Thanks Nokia...
I bought my 770 over a year ago, now as I'm looking to get an N800 I'm trying to decide what to do with the old one - time to make it a stay-at-home media controller? Hard to say, since the great thing about it (and continuing with the 800) is that I always have it with me, so where would I be where the 770 makes sense but I wouldn't also have the 800? Dilemmas, I'm very pleased with the launch of the 800 so far though.
Dear Ari, congrats on a fantastic product and exiting launch! Can wait to get my hands on one!
I fully understand that Nokia needs/needed to focus on N800 and making it a succesful consumer product. Personally, I have no problem with that at all.
However, I do already see that there is a huge uproar among the early adopter/developer community, and while it would definitely be a signficant investment for Nokia to make to investigate once more (or at least appear to investigate so that the community feels it is being investigated openly :)) whether the OS2007 or parts of it could be ported to 770 in the form of a new "OS2007 for 770", it would most likely be an investment worth making in order to keep the open source development community loyal to the effort, the brand, and the product(s).
Sincerely,
Jari V.
@luke opperman:
you'll most likely find yourself using the N800 at home and the 770 as a truly mobile device aanywhere. - the N800 is somewhat less sturdy; you'd probably not like to throw it in a bag or a pocket as it comes without any protection. the stand is something that could easily fall off or break, too.
Don't think that the 770 just got worse. It is a good product and we expect people to create more apps on it etc. Also, Nokia will provide support and tools for it as we move on.
Some of the applications will not run on 770 because N800 has a better hw, more memory, camera etc. But many will run on both. However,as I said Nokia will not make Os2007 on 770.
But I agree that with more time and resources we could have provided a better support for the 770. We will learn from this!
Finally standard SD slot, even 2 of them!
Hopefully the LCD of the N800 is visible in direct sunlight, too. But given the fact, that it is a Nokia from Finland (long winter with polar nights) and runs Linux (have you ever seen a Linux guy with a tan?), my hopes are not high.
teddy, that's an absurd comment. this is a mainstream consumer device, not some nerd-only thing.
Ari, could you clarify something for me? Are you saying that Nokia will never release a version of OS2007 for the 770? I ask because it concerns me since it would mean developers would have to release two versions of software for each device. I would also like to know if the same thing will happen to the n800 when the next device is released.
Wow, no OS2007 support for 770? I probably would have upgraded to the N800 sometime over the next 6 months, but now I'm not sure if I want to get myself into yet another hardware upgrade game. FWIW, I've heard a couple fellow 770 owners declare that the lack of a standard hard cover is a deal-breaker for upgrading to the N800.
> -we keep on selling and supporting 770s
What does support mean here exactly?
There are really critical bugs in N770 like Opera crashing very often when closing a browser window or watchdog rebooting the device when using WPA encryption.
Was this now the end of firmware releases?
I think you are just alienating many of your first adapters, royal customers. You plan to get most active developers in the boat by supplying price cuts to them but leave the rest deserted. What you don't consider is we also have good ideas (although not implemented yet), and now we won't feel like giving it to a company who didn't hesitate to leave us in this way. As many others I am really pissed off, won't develop for 770 anymore and will definitely NOT buy a N800 or any successor in that manner.
I have been looking at buying a 770 for some time and am now looking at buying an N800. The biggest reason for hesitating is fear that Nokia's suprising treatment of 770 owners about OS2007 will be repeated a year from now. Clearly a 770 won't run full OS2007 however I would have expected Nokia to support as much of OS2007 as practical on the 770 - particularly the built-in applications.
As well as the built-in applications, the more the 2 software platforms diverge, the harder it will be for application developers to support both. With developers being sold N800's at a huge discount, there is a real risk that application development for the 770 will just dry up.
Please re-consider this mis-guided decision and provide a reasonable version/subset of OS2007 for the 770.
Will Opera on the N770 continue to be developed to make it more stable?
If Nokia is going to abandon 770 users (as is the case for now), then there should at least be a trade in program.
I'm also quite disappointed by this.
I've had my 770 for a year now, and like it a lot, and have always looked forward to it getting better. The many little things that could be fixed to make it much less frustrating to use -- that when adding a repository to the application manager, you for some reason only get a TINY little un-resizable window that's not even long enough to display the URLs you're entering; that the drop-down to select which plug-in is displayed first in the task navigator only has the single option "Web"; that there's no way to remove the things I don't use (like the entire IM/Contacts menu) from the main menu; that there's no way to add more search engines to the search applet; and so on...
I loved the 770 and looked forward to it improving. Now that I suspect that these things will not happen it's quite disappointing. "We expect people to create more apps on it" is not very consoling.
Now why would I buy the N800 if I suspect the very same thing might happen again?
Hi Ari,
I've purchased the N770 just 2 weeks ago too, and I'm very happy with it. Please don't expect me to go running to buy the new N800 any time soon, specially when I see this kind of behaviour to your users.
I understand that porting OS2007 to the 770 could be impossible because of the hardware differences, but I'm sure as a free software developer that you can port most of it.
There are key apps that you should support, ie:
* Opera
* Flash plugin (having version 6 is almost like not having any flash support at all this days...)
I hope you'll reconsider this decision and honour the loyalty of your previous customers.
I have ordered the N800 because of the following: Sufficient memory, standard SD (very important), and TWO SLOTS which makes extremely much sense for me (leave the standard card-stored apps, docs and pictures on a basically fixed card in one slot (this is a much better idea than those hard disks), possibly with swap file, and change the card in the other slot for all the extras (plug in the card from the digital camera, replace with navigator card/maps etc., whatever). As a long time owner of PDAs with a single SD slot I really appreciate getting two slots.
The non-standard (that is, non-SD) flash format and too little memory was what held me back from buying a 770.
On the other hand, the N800 is too long. I figured the 770 was just barely small enough, I'll get a problem carrying that N800 around, but I ordered one anyway.
Lastly, just some advice - Nokia should _not_ leave the 770 owners behind, for their own customer loyality they should keep supporting them, as long as it's not completely impossible for technical reasons. PDA vendors which tried a strategy of stopping providing software upgrades for older devices have experienced mass migration to competitors, in particular that vendor which used to have the most loyal customer base.
-Tor
Hi Ari,
I recently (3 weeks ago) bought a Nokia 770 for myself as a holiday gift, following a massive advertising blitz of nokia promoting the 770.
Now it seems that I bought a machine that was very advanced for its time, but nobody will be developing for it anymore because nokia didn't take the time to support the community that made 770 such a hit. Your developer program will see to that by giving almost-free N800's to all of the core developers, none of whom (understandably) will code for the 770 anymore, effectively cutting the air supply off for the 770.
What nokia should have done is offer a trade-up program for 770 owners, or at least a significant trade-up for people who bought their devices less than a month ago as a result of nokia's cynical marketing tactics. Had I known that the N800 would be coming out in 3 weeks I would have waited and bought it. Now, all I feel is that nokia defecated on their customers, and that I wasted $350 on a device that "hopefully some developers will still work on".
Don't "learn from it!" Fix the existing problems. Make sure that Nokia knows that they've left a lot of people out in the cold with their decisions -- the loyal customers who helped make the 770 in the first place. Backport 2007. Offer a trade-in / trade-up program. I can't believe nokia would sell 770's over christmas in such a cynical, evil fashion.
This isn't "some grumbling". I love everything about the internet tablet product, but if somebody else comes out with a similar product, you can bet that this experience will be with me when I consider where to spend my next $350 (hint: not nokia.com).
If Nokia would provide a trade-up program I would make use of it. My Nokia 770 is now about 2 weeks old so I'm certainly not going to buy a full priced N800, but if they'd give me the option of an upgrade I would go for it.
Actually, that's what Apple does when they release new hardware. Whenever you buy Apple hardware and they upgrade that specific line (within a few weeks limit), you get the option to trade it in for a newer model.
Something similar from Nokia? Hint hint, nudge nudge?
Let's look at at from the bright side for the 770 owners. Since N800 will considerably drop down the price of 770, many open source developers who couldn't afford a 770 before will get one now and develop applications for 770 users (since developers tend to develop for the hardware they have). Of course this will cause two headedness (unless Nokia does something about 2007OS in 770) but at least we, 770 owners, will still have some open source action going on.
The lack of a software upgrade path for the Nokia internet tablets just plain sucks.
Nokia is treating the tablet as a disposable phone, not as a platform.
This will alienate both developers and users.
That the software must be optimized for the new cpu is understood. But Nokia should make a real effort to bring as many of the new features as possible to the prior generation tablets.
Lot of whining about support for 770.. 770 is open source so why not pick source code and do needed changes?
Porting OS2007 for 770 is probably not possible as it probably will use 128MB (64MB in 770) as well as features of new CPU (like 3d acceleration and FPU). So OS2007 porting is just not feasible, surely some parts could be ported that don't require extra resources of N800 but it could not be called OS2007 anymore(?) Situation is more or less same to ask Microsoft to make sure that Vista will run in 486 with 16MB, it just don't make too much sense.
Nokia say they will support 770 so there is bug fixes coming, some developers probably will make their software for both 770 and N800.
I personally don't have 770 but was planning to buy one but didn't when saw news about n800 (or 880 at a time). Will be getting N800 and do hopefully some coding as well.
Hi Dr. Jaaksi
I look forward to reading your next presentation to the development community where you describe your experience alienating loyal customers and killing a once thriving platform.
Take my advice: release a subset of OS2007 for the 770.
If you're busy at CES then post something to say you're thinking about what to do, and make an announcement soon after you get back. Leave it too long and you'll have undone the last 2 years effort, the last thing we need is a fragmented development community.
Mr Jaaksi -
+1 vote for a trade-up program, because
- you get much more momentum for the N800
- you retain proven customers: all the 770
owners are very crucial and loyal
customers
I say to Nokia: folks, be commercial and
offer an upgrade.
Fietske
Hi Tero,
you say the community should stop whining and simply pick the source code to make the changes needed for the OS2007 to run on the 770.
The OS2007 is *not* open source. (Neither was OS2006 or OS2005.) It might make use of some open source components, but contains a lot of closed source stuff. (The obvious like Opera and Flash, but also other hardware-specific parts.)
Seeing the whole picture now, Nokia used just enough open source software to cut expenses. But they always ensured that there's enough closed source code in it so nobody can compile the whole system.
Nokia you abandened us, your first adaptors, and now I will abandon you.... I am getting an iphone with OSX!!! not N800!
Congratulations on releasing a new internet tablet.
There is a lot of strong views here. Though it seems Nokia are supporting the 770, the only difference is that new features will not be backported. Maybe the wrong analogy, but I got a VW Touran 8 months ago, and only read yesterday of a revised model. VW are still servicing and supporting my old model, but I won't get features of the new car. Accepted, backporting in software is easier than car parts, but this does happen with other products.
Overall it is definitely a positive move and I think encouraging to see a new Linux internet tablet, I want one!
I can't believe some of the comments in here. How is this surprising? How can you get angry and make such pathetic threats about leaving the community? Like Nokia is going to care, they'll have all the support they need, practically giving them away to anyone to a programming history.
These practices happen ALL the freaking time in ALL sectors of technology. CES is an annual event, why the hell would you buy a pda in the last month or so is anyone's guess. Of course, it may have been a mission critical purchase, but I don't see how you can be upset, maybe its just me.
Remember the 770 was the FIRST model of the Internet Tablets from Nokia. How many First models from any manufacturer are still 100 percent supported and upheld, especially one as relatively niche as the 770, after the second model is released? I can't think of any.
Yes, its not the most pleasant method of introducing N800, but I'm sure Nokia already thought about all of this and decided it would not be practical, let alone cost effective (what are they going to do with all these traded 770s?) Nokia obviously want this platform, however small, to flourish and to maximise the sales/awareness/etc they need to push "updated", "faster", i.e. "better" very hard to make progress.
My 770 (only 7 months old) is promptly hitting auction after my N800 is delivered (after confirming it meets all my requirements, has no glaring/hidden flaws etc). I can't wait!
There are two issues here.
Most of us are angry because we invested important amounts of money (saving from our lunch money) to buy this device. It is not something you will understand easily if you are driving a VW Touran.
The other issue is two seperate OS and even worse Nokia taking the lead developers with N800. Now lower budget guys like us will have easier access to 770 but then again there will be the whole issue of incompatibilities, porting from one OS to another, reducing productivity.. etc.
Is it not possible at all to implement 2007OS in 770 (we are not asking for webcam functionality in 77), I don`t know, but at we deserve an explanation why this is the case.
To richie - You got the analogy wrong. I bet you'd be angry too, if you found out that you can't drive new or improved roads with your old car. It's not the new features in next car models we want, but the roads that will be blocked from us.
Nokia's open enviroment has closed door to the future from us.
At least Opera Flash support is still there. I've been playing online Flash games at http://www.gamoku.com on my old 770. I'll be getting the lovely N800 and I will still be able to play the games. Thanks.
I bought my 770 in 2005 - not so long after it came out. So it's been with me through IT2005 and IT2006, a kernel flash to support my 2GB RS-MMC and the IT2006 update that included that new kernel. Not bad support for a first device in its class.
Got my N800 on Sunday in Pleasanton, CA (thank you CompUSA). It's not as stable as my 770 grew to be - random reboots with the browser and RSS reader are annoying. It will improve - as the 770 did. I like the new design but miss the cover. But I can see how the cover would not go with the new casing. I'll need to look out for something better than the sleeve Nkia supplies.
I LOVE that my investment in a 2GB RS-MMC card didn't go to waste. 2 fullsize SD slots that digest MMC too - thank you Nokia.
The panel clock won't show up for me, the cpu/mem does. I've been able to re-add my eBay search to the search applet. The thing does what I want it to do - faster than before. The new hardware will attract new applications that will do more of what I want such a tool to do. I already am a Skype customer - now (at some point) my N800 will have that too. This is goodness - for me anyway.
I won't miss my 770 - just hope I can dump it on eBay quickly. It's unfortunate that the break happened but I'm not surprised for a variety of reasons:
- the 770 was the Nokia's first IT - they got very many things right. They were going to change things on the second one to get more things right (wish they had a better browser than Opera - Firefox or even the Nokia browser in the new Series 60 phones would do)
- Nokia, for all the talk and action around hacking and open-source, is still a commercial company selling consumer electronics (read "new", "better", "faster", "buy now" as good things to such a company). They are not in it for the community - unless it is (largly) to Nokia's benefit. Nothing underhand in this - it's reality.
The 770 was/is a really cool device. It did, mostly without complaint, what I wanted from a portable internet device (I don't want a PIM - my phone does that, I don't want it to be a cellphone - my phone does that). The N800 is at least as cool. I think it looks better, it is faster, it has the hardware under it to be more flexible (I remain impressed with the hardware that Nokia put into the 770 - even before there was the VOIP code to make use of it).
But, I like cool devices and am prepared to pay for them. Sony MagicLinks, Newtons - even a Nokia 7710 (even when it was known that it was the last of its kind - before I bought it!)
It was possible to know that the N800 was coming out at the beginning of last month - there were even photographs of it. A little research might have saved the heartache of buying a 770 2 weeks before it was replaced.
The N800 has a carry case accessory (http://www.europe.nokia.com/accessorieslink?s=N800Case) which may be helpful protecting the screen, however it's impossible to buy the case as the UK online Nokia store doesn't list it!
Ari - please try and resolve this issue before I smash or scratch the screen on my new N800! :)
Note: If you click the N800 image in the aforementioned link, it redirects to the N80 phone.
PS. Nokia really are gouging people with their prices for flash memory cards. I can buy a branded 1GB mini SD card for £12.99 yet Nokia want £54 - only a fool would pay the Nokia prices.
My 770 is almost 12 months old and the touch screen is not what it once was; I'm probably quite rough with it. I'm most definately in the market for an N800, but they're not available in Australia. Why would that be? It makes no sense to me.
Hmmm. Just read about hard case, or rather the lack of it. That could be a deal-breaker. I'm sure the screen would break if I threw it in my pocket along with my phone and keys, as I currently do with the 770.
Just a quick reply to some of those who says that Nokia is a "commercial company" and "not in it for the community" and the like - look, there's no conflict there. It _is_ in Nokia's interest to keep up a loyal customer base! Only the most stupid of economists will think in so short terms to believe otherwise (admittedly, the majority of econimists seem to be exactly that stupid, unfortunately).
Again, look at one of the major PDA makers - they had one of the most loyal customer bases ever, but this has almost gone to pieces now, and one reason is missing support for older devices. Many now buy from other vendors.
Keeping up support for older devices will _not_ undermine sales of new devices (except in the very short term, if at all), because that loyal customer base keeps buying and buying new devices (if you go to some of the user fora you'll typically see sigs with long lists of devices bought over the last decade or so). But the point is, the customer wants to buy a new device when he or she wants to, not because he or she feels that they're forced to do so. Big difference! A loyal customer base means many more customers in the longer term.
Lastly, personally I'm not angry at all, yet, first of all because I didn't buy the 770, I was waiting for a device with more RAM, and SD, and now it's here, and secondly, at this stage we don't yet know what kind of future upgrade possibilites there will be for the 770, what's been said in this blog is not enough to decide by far.
Relax everyone for now, and hopefully Nokia understands that good customer relations will be very good for them too. I think they do, actually.
Cheers,
Tor
Anon quote "It is not something you will understand easily if you are driving a VW Touran."
--
I accept the analogy is not great, but I was trying to say that this does happen with other products. I do understand, I used to have a Sharp Zaurus, and Sharp in the UK stopped support for the device and didn't bother with the version 3 update for UK customers. Thats was bad treatment and only OpenZaurus kept me using it.
I think at least it is positive Nokia have acknowledged the situation with the software changes and are trying to learn. They are still supporting the 770 and I think it is positive to have released a new device. Things could be worse.
PS In terms of the VW Touran, it was an analogy, and just because I have one, doesn't mean I'm rich (well in name only :o) and without understanding. The car is for my son, he is disabled and we need the space for wheelchairs and ramps, yes it aint cheap and I'll be paying for it for a while.
When I tested my LCARS PADD theme with OS2007 on the N800, I was pleased to see that it worked for the most part. It needed a few alterations, but the changes were minor and I was able to adapt the theme to work with the new OS fairly easily.
It now seems I'm faced with a choice:
1. I could be an asshole and drop 770 support in future versions of the theme,
2. I could release separate versions of the theme for the two devices, or
3. I could give up on Maemo theme development altogether
Many developers will choose the first option, and drop 770 support. Those of us who choose the second option will have lots of extra work to do as a result of Nokia's careless disregard.
If Nokia would just continue to support the 770 with the new OS, all would be well. As is, we have to assume that this planned obsolescence is a sign of things to come. No one wants to use an out-of-date OS, and few can afford to purchase a new tablet every year...
Looking at the comments here and over at internettablettalk.com, it seems that this platform is rapidly losing its appeal - for developers and end users alike. Please, reconsider and announce plans to backport OS2007 to the 770 before it's too late!
I don't understand why OS2007 wouldn't run on the 770. Only the software for the webcam plus a new graphics driver should be changed. A 770 running OS2007 could run the exact same video player, only higher resolution videos would not play because the old video hardware didn't have scaling support.
I call it bullshit that Nokia cannot 'port' OS2007. It should be a simple recompile of the system with the makefile or whatever disabling the N800-only apps or functions. It is the exact same thing if Ubuntu said you cannot run Edgy on an old Pentium 3 with an old Nvidia card.
This isn't the open development model we were promissed by Nokia. I bought my 770 because I expected all applications would run on it no matter what (execpt for video etc. of course). This seems to me the exact same thing Microsoft did with Windows CE (2.0, 3.0, 2003, 2003SE, Mobile 5.0).
Thus i will not be getting a N800, only to get 'Nokia OS2008 Mobile 3.0 Second Edition' next year with everything again being "not portable".
...The OS2007 is *not* open source. (Neither was OS2006 or OS2005.) It might make use of some open source components, but contains a lot of closed source stuff. (The obvious like Opera and Flash, but also other hardware-specific parts.)...
Its pretty far fetched to blame Nokia that its partners should opensource their software. For device drivers I don't know, maybe it is same as Nvidia drivers in Linux in general, they are not opensource as well.
Dear Ari -
People are not angry because their 770 is becoming outdated in the face of a new product.
They're angry because the 770 never really seemed finished. It has many flaws and ways in which the OS could be improved that seem obvious. And we put up with them for so long because of the great community Nokia's built around it, and because we saw the potential of where it was going.
And now you "expect people to create more apps on it." Who do you expect to do that? Obviously not the prominent developers that you're luring to the N800 by giving them three-hundred dollar discounts.
The 770 doesn't need the better hardware of the N800 to make it stop creating an "Audio%20Clips" folder every time I try to save to "Audio Clips." It doesn't need a video camera to have a text editor that can actually save plain text files. It doesn't need to be the N800 for the myriad of obvious improvements that we expected would one day be made.
To find out that the 770's OS will never be what it could be, we feel as if we've been played for suckers, having shown this product so much more lenience than we normally would have with any other product.
We all welcome the hardware updates but by letting 770 die or not, you are about to make a very important choice.
If you are OK with leaving your core customer base for 770 and selling the product mostly to end-users (and lose most of the developers), then you can break the compatibility. But be sure to have a complete product for the end users who won't put up with all the problems of the OS. Also be sure that those customers will leave you in a blink of an eye when something prettier and more stable (like iphone) comes out with somewhat similar capabilities (from an end-user perspective).
OR keep your community, let the software evolve to a stable, proven, ever growing platform where new applications are released continually. Then you can still have the end-users types' interest and can also actually satisfy them.
(Sure also go ahead and make the device look more sexy!)
I see that lots of users are unhappy about the decision to not release os2007 for the 770.
Maybe the solution is to do something similar to what happened on the Sharp Zaurus: separate the open-source stuff from the closed-source software?
Half of the work is already done: people can recompile the open source parts of maemo for a 770 or a N800 target. What is missing is the closed 770 applications in a nice installable package.
On the Zaurus, I could install opie (and keep it up to date), and then install an SD driver, opera, java, hancom and all the useful software which did not exist as open source, but I appreciated from the original machine.
I am feeling short changed. If Nokia is not supporting software upgrades for 770 they should at least have an exchange program with some additional amount for existing owners of 770s.
Don't we deserve a response?
Why don't Nokia or Dr. Jaaksi respond to our comments.
Are we really left out as a community?
Quoting from Dr. Jaaksi's own article
"In the open source, decisions are done openly. We join technical discussions and roadmapping process.
We contribute our ideas, submit our code, and discuss requirements to influence the direction of a
component or technology. We are not only a licensor but also a licensee at the same time!"
Do you think what you write and what you do as a company are consistent?
I whole heartedly agree with Seans points. I believe that he has identified exactly the issue.
I have given the 770 a great deal more leeway than a standard consumer product for exactly the reason he described, that is, because I anticipated future work.
I saw the regularity of Nokias releases and upgrades and thought this was quite sufficient.
I accept the hardware limitiations that the N800 bring to the table.
I do not accept the poor quality of the web browser, the odd keyboard behaviour, the lack of refined power control and number other software bugs that prevent this device from being a sophisticated end consumer product.
I don't understand why Nokia continue to use Opera instead of expending some effort on developing Minimo. Even Hildonizing Minimo would result in a superior browser to opera. I imagine the licensing fees paid for Opera would pale into insignificance compared to the cost of hiring a minimo developer. And in fact the same for all the applications on the device, like the email client, media player, rss reader etc. This should all be fully opened.
l find it unbelievable that you would knowingly fragment the installed base by not providing an update to 770. Not only are you letting the owners, your early adopters down, which is bad in itself, but screwing third party developers by doubling build-, test- and distribution workload is no way to build trust for the platform. Frankly, it shows Nokia has a few things to learn about the difference between closed and open systems.
Hi Ari,
i have a N770 and a N800 and my request (Nokia) for the future:
1) Quality assurance and consolidated online download (applications)
2) focus up of the 10 ? most important applications - less is more
3) focus up (google calendar, docs, spreadsheets)- online-application for beginners
4) New Browser Version - where google docs & spreadsheets runs
5) Bluetooth Mouse support
6) User comfort - no Linux only for Freaks - keep it simple (look iphone)
The Apple iphone is coming - Linux and Nokia has all chances - they have 12 months time - use it
Thanks in advance
Frank
gentoo linux running on an hp ipaq - a (more) promising open-source platform?
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20070108-newsletter.xml
ftp://gentoo.ru/hx4700/screenshots/X
Ari -
With all the comments on how the community feels there is one thing I have not seen here yet, and I find it odd. If Nokia will no longer provide updates beyond occasional critical fixes, if even that, why not *completely* open OS 2006 and provide the information on the hardware that would be needed for the community to continue? Caution: You may find the community will do a better job at fixing the problems than Nokia has. But no one would doubt Nokia's dedication to the community that made the 770 the success it is. Had it not been for the community the platform would have been relegated to being just another failed experiment. I am reminded of this every time I install an app and my 770 tells me it did not come from Nokia. Come to think of it, I can't remember installing one that did other than OS upgrades. The community has provided the flexibility and functionality the 770 needed to push it beyond simple web browsing. Your efforts to support development have been wonderful, but was not all together altruistic. Nokia has benefited from the community at least as much as we as consumers have benefited from the Internet Tablet. Opening OS2006 may be the best way to keep that momentum going.
I just wanted to say "Thanks Nokia" - "Thanks for screwing 770 owners!!!"
Frankly, the idea that you could just basically abandon your 1st wave adopters speaks volumes!
The reason that everyone bought a 770 was because they were living under the hopeful illusion that a) they would be buying into a stable platform which would be adequately suported (i.e. backward compatible) for a long time and would be allowed to grow into maturity b) that the platform would be open source c) and that they would not have to play into the forced harware and software upgrade game (i.e. the history of the MS Pocket PC).
You are failing on all fronts.
I believe that Americans also wanted to believe that a european company would essentially be more socially and environmentally responsible... but you have shown us that you are just like all multinationals - adding crap to the consumer electronic landfill on a yearly basis.
I hope that some company releases a new, Palm OS backwards compatible Linux OS / device sometime soon and that that company was as dedicated to its loyal customers as Palm Inc. was!
Viva Linux-Palm! Adios Nokiasoft!
Thanks for the nice post!
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