With a price-tag of $650 US, could this be the end of the beloved tablet? Well at least perhaps for me 
www.nokiausa.com is now accepting pre-orders for the N900, Nokia’s first Maemo based phone, and Nokia’s fourth generation Maemo device. I have been an avid user of the Nokia 770, 800, 810 since 2005. I have eagerly awaited each new device. I paid $350 for the 770, $400 for the 800 and $450 for one of my 810′s. 
While I would love to play with a N900 and see what its like, I cannot foresee me spending $650 x 2 for me and my wife to replace our current phones and our 810′s. On top of the seemingly high (at least to me) price, the spec’s seem to be away from what I want out of my tablet. This makes it all the more reason that for the first time I actually think I may be heading off, away from Nokia hardware to look for an alternative. For $650 I could buy a laptop, or a phone and a netbook, or a pandora console and a phone, or an unlocked I-phone and save a $100-200 and spend that money on supported apps. Well the I-phone would never be something I would buy it is the direct competition to the N900. I just don’t see this thing running off the shelves. They need to get this into peoples hands and at $650 a pop I am just not sure that is gonna happen. At least not for me
I just wonder how many existing users are willing to just jump on this boat, and how many new users will actually be attracted to this new phone. They had better have a huge marketing budget for that thing, I have NEVER seen a TV commercial on my actual television for a Maemo based device. They had better get some advertising dollars to work, because so far I am not really seeing people will be waiting outside at 2AM waiting to buy a n900 like they were for the I-Phone which seems like the crowd the N900 is aimed at.
Nokia also recently announced a netbook for around $820 dollars while other netbooks are running much much less. In case Nokia didn’t get the message, everyone is a little low on EXTRA money lately, or again, maybe its just me……???
Perhaps its not just me?, numbers just published show U.S. consumer credit down record amount in July 2009. This is the sixth straight monthly drop in consumer credit. In July it dropped 10.4% annual rate or $21.5 billion. On top of this initial reports of only T-mobile supported 3g phones in the US, which makes up roughly 12% of the US market, and Nokia comes in with less than 9% of the US market when it comes to smartphones. Don’t get me wrong if Nokia could get 30% of the T-mobile US handsets, like I-phone did with ATT, then that 12% or 33million subscribers on the T-mobile network could turn into 10million handsets sold. However currently It appears Nokia is flailing in the US with its market share dropping from 30% in 2004 to less than 9% today.
This all leaves me wondering if the N900 will leap Nokia forward or just end up losing existing consumers of their predecessors to the internet tablet line. I guess only time will tell, what the future holds for Nokia and Maemo based devices here in the US. I want them to succeed so I can see what the next version of the tablet/phone looks like, I am just not sure how I feel about this one yet, I guess time will tell about that too.
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9 users responded in this post
Wow…. my response was just the opposite. “$650! It’s worth that to me (given the very impressive specs) even if the phone feature didn’t work for me.”
For me: Take out the phone, and the N900 is the pocketable device I’ve been waiting for for 10 years. Palm V – no. Sony Clie – no. Sharp Zaurus – fail. Nokia n810 – cose enough… “for now.”
N900! Woohoo! …. “all that and a phone for free? Cool!”
I’m always shocked at how different our (people) reactions are from one another.
Well it all depends on your monthly income on how you see $650. If you earn, lets say $1300 a month that would be half of your earnings. On the other hand if you would earn $2600 it’s just a quarter.
And with $1300 you probably won’t have that much to spend freely anyway.
The price tag IS high – but you also get something for your money.
Give it another 3-6 months after release. It will get cheaper. Look at the prices for Nokia’s flagship phones to see what I mean.
Hmmm, life is not always as simple as that. I can make much more than 2600$ a month and still think $650 is a lot on money for a cell phone. I am married with with 4 kids from 10-16 years of age, and 650$ would buy almost a month of groceries. Then there is a mortgage payment, and two car payments and insurance on home and auto, and TAXES, gasoline, and every other nickle and dime being sucked out of my pocket monthly. I am just saying the average American does not have 650$ to spend on a cell phone. The ones that do are less likely to have T-mobile as a carrier, and the majority of T-mobile customers like me, who live in a large city an hour from Detroit Michigan and there is no t-mobile 3g service. It all just seems like a bad plan?
Just wait until you get a chance to try this thing, penguinbait. It is really something special. I hope the price will come down, too, but it is really worth a premium over the other, older tablets.
Yes Qole, Quim’s blog also seemed to make me think having it in hand may give you a different perspective. It’s definitely easier to keep the faith with proof of the afterlife in your hand… can I get an AMEN!!!
The N900 is competition for the defunct OQO – it fills the space that OQO never quite did (Win XP on a tiny screen?) at a quarter of the OQO price.
I agree it won’t displace the iPhone – too much market share momentum, but it does set Nokia up to leap-frog on the next iteration of chip technology. Hopefully this will finally settle the internal struggle at Nokia over Symbian v. Linux (Maemo).
Anyone willing to use a phone and a N810, as in your case, isn’t going to shell out more to just consolidate to one device – you are on the bleeding edge and obviously a Nokia tablet addict.
But for anyone who wants a 3G PC that fits in their pocket (and truly replaces other mobile devices, including IR remotes, see http://maemotalk.com/2009/09/09/irreco-remote-control-app-for-the-n900/), full bluetooth HID ( bluetooth pocket keyboards out-of-the-box) this is the _only_ device going. If the USB port supports Clearwire WiMax, then, all the better for the non-traveler (no TMobile contracts.)
Let’s see if someone gets a full portrait mode running (Nokia should have had this on their list – let the user decide what mode to put it in) and what other goodies the Maemo community is cooking up.
The N900 is clearly a “power-user” device, not a fashion statement as the iPhone has become. It’s also got Palm beat on resurrecting the original Palm “pocket PC” experience.
I’m glad I got the N770 to understand the power of the “pocket desktop” (and now to have another wifi VNC/web browser around the house) and also glad I waited for the N900 to deliver on the iPhone’s promises.
Good luck with your deliberating!
Charlie
You might want to think about getting a subsidised version of the device: One great feature of the device is the built-in UMTS modem. This allows you to be online everytime – if you have a mobile data flatrate. So my suggestion is: Get a mobile contract with a data flatrate and let your mobile operator pay the device.
It was hinted several times that such subsidised versions would be sold for one symbolic Euro.
SIM Free always costs the most, you need to get it as an upgrade or put money towards the cost of the handset on a new contract deal.
Unfortunately my contract doesn’t run out for another 9 months and then it looks like there might be an N901 out
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