The Mobile Web Tablet

The Nokia N900 mobile web tablet-that’s-also-a-phone has been hitting the stores after months of delay. Reviews are good and it seems like the speed of the device is what impresses the most. The downside is a somewhat clunky interface but an average linux geek should feel right at home. And honestly: can it get worse than S60?

Digital Versus writes:

Franck loved the fact that you can use the N900 as a terminal for getting inside the entrails of the phone (or how to make your life more complicated!) and the visual part of the interface. He regrets the lack of applications on Maemo.org, the fact that navigation isn’t always the most logical and that the keyboard is restricted to three lines (5 would have been preferable) “especially as you need to look up characters in the symbol bank that you often require for those famous “commands”".

PC advisor:

The Linux-based Maemo 5 OS is the star of the show. This really is an advanced smartphone – it’s a genuine handheld computer. Maemo can run multiple tasks simultaneously, the web browser is outstanding and the interface looks smooth and polished, unlike the Symbian operating system usually employed by Nokia. Menu icons and fonts will be familiar to any Nokia users, but Maemo ups the ante with some nice screen transitions; when opening new windows and browsing though running applications, for example.

While the N900 seems to be a great device, the big question is of course if Nokia can keep up against Android and Apple with the Maemo OS. Not just UI- or feature-wise but also when it comes to the developer community and availability of applications.

Then we have the Google Chrome OS and the rumored Apple Web Tablet so Nokia is being attacked from many directions. Never the less, 2010 looks to be an interesting year for web tablets.

Popularity: 17% [?]

I use my Nokia N800 as a surfboard before sleeping. It gives me my final dose of internet before I doze off. It’s not a phone, though and it can be a little slow sometimes. I also miss a physical keyboard and in order to replace my phone it would have to smaller.

Enter the N900.

By the looks of it it fixes all my issues above and may turn out to be the best phone Nokia has ever released.

The one thing that nags me a little bit is the fact that is’s based on Maemo, the linux phone OS initiated by Nokia. While this seemed like a bold move when the N770 and N800 came out, today there are other alternatives. Or will Maemo, Android and iPhone all be the platforms that the mobile infrastructure of the future is built on?

Maybe the mobile OS doesn’t matter at all as long as there as a compatible browser? On the other hand, browsers are also platforms and on the PC there are still huge fragmentation problems when it comes to browsers.

It will take a long time before the dust settles on this platform battle, that’s for sure.

Popularity: 7% [?]