Houston, we have a take-off!

We gave a few hundred Nokia N900s out to the Maemo Summit participants. That happened about a month ago. You have now been using the devices and provided us with feedback. Thank you so much! That has been very helpful. You've helped us to focus our effort and work on the remaining issues. That's why I want YOU to be the first to know.

We have also been testing the software extensivly in our own labs. We will continue working on the software and will provide important software upgrades as we go forward. But we also wanted to have very good software release to start with.

Based on our testing and your feedback we decided to postpone the delivery start. We had oroiginally said October, but now we said November. Now I'm happy to tell that we ment only days, not weeks or months.

The shipments of the Nokia N900 have now started. The factories are now working full speed and the devices are on their way to distribution.

Houston, we have a take-off!

My vision of Maemo ... at least a part of it

We say that the Nokia N900 running Maemo 5 is a computer. It is a computer in your pocket. What an earth do we mean? Let me try to explain what I think. This is my interpretation.

A computer of 2009 -- not 1999
When I talk about a computer, I talk about a computer people use today, especially young people. Think about the internet, messaging, sharing, openness, and think about browsers and players. Don't think about spreadsheets, word processors, file managers, or closed systems. That should put you in the right ballpark to start with.

Open and expandable
I want Maemo software to be expandable without limits. I want to encourage people to write apps that install themselves into the application grids and sit on top of the Maemo OS. But I also want to invite people to build services and apps that integrate within the Maemo software --- as an integral part of the end user experience. Not only apps but Maemo OS expansions. Maemo devices are open and true Linux computers so the sky is the limit.

Let me try to explain. An application that goes "on top of Maemo" is like the Nako game from Jakub. It sits on top of Maemo. The N900 will have many of these!

Figure: The Nako game -- an application

A MSN messaging I'm using is implemented with a piece of software called Butterfly developed as connection manager to the Telepathy communication framework. It is developed by the community (hackers, developers, 3rd party companies, ....) but it is tightly integrated into Maemo. Maemo allows such integration. For the end user MSN messaging becomes an integral part of Maemo as if it was originally developed by Nokia.

Figure: My accounts -- including MSN -- integrated within Maemo 5

Figure: Butterfly MSN discussion with my daughter

Figure: Similar discussion over SMS -- both look exactly the same. SMS is developed and integrated by Nokia and MSN/Butterfly by others

So Maemo is an open platform for all kinds of integration possibilities.

Addictive, active, and connected
My vision is to make Maemo really addictive. I want users to be constantly checking it out -- what's happening, who's online, who said what etc. Instead of a boring static menu grid, I want Maemo to open directly to the world around us. Maemo is active -- not passive. I want plug-ins, message bars, picture galleries, and status indicators constantly changing on the home screen. I want to see the latest from the world around me. I want to be connected all the time with a glance at the screen!

Figure: What's up RIGHT NOW?

Figure: What's up RIGHT NOW?

Doing many things at the same time
We all multitask. I want Maemo to make multitasking simple and understandable. I want to be able to shift from one activity to another with one touch of a finger. I do not want to limit people to only one job at a time.

Figure: A whole lotta things goin' on ...

Cult
Maemo is rough on the edges. It is a bit dangerous. It is open to experiments. It is about community involvement. I want these to stay. I do not like boring cars, either.

Figure: Torrents ... like in any computer

Summary
These were some of my thoughts when I'm thinking about Maemo 5, pushing Maemo forward, and making computers. We are not making a new iPhone or Symbian here. They both exist already and are pretty good. So no need to replicate them.

With Maemo, I see computers that are always connected, fit into your pocket, are open, and addictive.