I disagree. Nokia started down this path with their Internet Tablets, the 770 and 800, which pre-date the iphone. So they've had their toes in the water for a while, including opensource. I had an N800, it had some real nice features but it suffered from the usual problem when compared to the iphone: clunky, and not enough polished apps = not as much fun.
Open source is not the be all and end all, developers may care more about having a feature-rich platform to build on and which offers good opportunities for monetizing their work. Open source certainly has its advantages, everything Apple have done wrong with app store and approving apps and being control freaks reminds people of the benefits of being opensource, and stops us from blindly swapping nightmares involving the mobile phone networks being gatekeepers, for nightmares where the device manufacturer is the gatekeeper. But the open source movement has its own woes and downsides, to date I only really consider it a massive success with certain webapps, eg wordpress, and probably a few desktop apps but not many really. And the Apple app store also opens eyeballs by demonstrating that people are still quite prepared to pay for apps if the experience is deemed good enough. Open standards and interoperability fascinate me more than open source apps. On the web I have to rely on many services that are provided by corporations, and the same is true for most hardware. But at least if some commons standards are used with this stuff, it gives us some flexibility and freedom. With the exception of Internet Explorer, Im very happy with where the web and browsers have been going in regards to standards, HTML5 and friends will hopefully eventually give us a pretty comprehensive multimedia experience that will be common across platforms and will allow people to buy slightly locked-down hardware without all of the associated pain. Cheers Steve Elbows --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Rupert Howe <rup...@...> wrote: > > Nokia has been closed up until now. The N900 using an open source OS > is a radical departure for them - they've been a traditional, > hierarchical closed company. Thus many fewer apps. Also the apps are > more functional, less fun for straight mobile phones. The moment you > bring in a touch screen with a large screen surface area and good > resolution, the more things you can do with it. And then add the > financial and career incentive of creating a successful app for the > world's most popular mobile computer. > > I think you're right, though - Nokia have had to raise their game > massively because of the iPhone, and the N900 is definitely a > desperate reaction to the iPhone and their subsequent drop in market > share. Making it open and using a slightly different technology for > the touch screen is a gamble, but I think it might pay off. I'm > already scheming video apps for it. > > > On 29-Sep-09, at 4:21 PM, Jay dedman wrote: > > > > So Rupert.... given your experience with Nokia and Apple, I would > > love to > > > read your more elaborate thoughts on the two options for mobile > > smart phone > > > puters. Are you leaning towards iPhone? > > > > I was a Nokia user for a long time...but without being a fanboy, I got > > to say how awesome the iPhone is. The fact that you can figure out how > > to do things without instructions is amazing. Hopefully, other > > companies will follow this model. > > > > It's strange to me that Nokia is open and Apple is closed, but > > developers have created many more applications for Apple than Nokia. > > Being a big fan of Open Source, it's just an example that usability > > will always win. > > > > As far as the camera on the iPhone 3GS, it's not something right home > > about. The image is pretty poor. Little control. Bad mic. BUT BUT BUT > > it is extremely easy to take a video and post it online. So easy. > > > > Hopefully, Apple with all their developers and design sense will just > > set the expectation for how all phones should be, open source > > included. > > > > Jay > > > > -- > > http://ryanishungry.com > > http://jaydedman.com > > http://twitter.com/jaydedman > > 917 371 6790 > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
