I’m in and seated at the opening session of Maemo Summit 2009. There are 400 people behind me just desperate to get hands on with the N900 and to find out more about Maemo. What a great buzz!

0945:

Peter Schneider. Head of Maemo Marketing will open in a few mins and then introduce Ari Jaaksi, VP of Maemo Devices for the opening keynote at about 10:30 (+30 mins) I don’t plan to live blog everything but you’ll get the  important announcements here. (While you’re waiting you can read yesterday’s post about the N900 and Maemo)

It’s go! Video intro. Happy devs clapping!

Wow. At least 30% of the audience here have N900’s in a show of hands. That’s a lot of devices!

All presentations are being video recorded.

10:10 Ari Jaaksi now on stage

Ari going through a little history. ‘I’ve been working with Maemo before it was cool.’

10:15

Maemo since spring 2005. Since 770 was launched. ‘A goofy project internally’ Ari references the Archos tablet I showed him yesterday and said that the expression ‘Internet Tablet’ is not used anymore! [Cry!]

N900 project name was ‘Rover’ – ‘A Crappy British Car’  (Any Rover V8 fans out there?)

Ari shows a white 770 that didn’t reach the market.

‘Geeky’ he sais.

Ari: Size becoming a more important issue, especially when 3G is involved. Maemo 5 UI evolution slide…

10:25 ‘The calendar UI looks like the engine of an Alfa Romeo.’

Does he mean beautiful but troublesome?

Ari: ‘The best email device I’ve ever used’

On power management:

No longer an OS-level issue. It’s an app issue too.

10:35:

Getting devices out is a ‘staggeringly difficult job’ Community, Maemo.org and Internal teams working in synchronization. 80% of code comes from open source communities. Ari says that it would not be possible without that.

Nokia were surprised at the response to the N900 from the wider community.

Ari accepts that there are things to do…

Portrait Browsing will be an upgrade before end of year.

Multitouch – ‘We need to work on that. ‘ In this hardware they can’t do it.

Ari invites everyone to ‘be opinionated’ on Maemo.org

Annouced: Pre-production version is reserved for each person here today. 6 months loan. BIG claps! Looks like we won’t get the devices until after the event.

Ari finished. Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation now on stage.

Jim’s’ favorite Linux use case:  (Slide of the SNES emulator on N900)

Talking about the economy. Says it’s good for Linux.

Second trend: Helping: Convergence.

Slide set about convergence…

‘Its all coming together’

My opinion: Physical issues won’t go away. (Most) people will buy multiple devices, not totally converged devices.

Jim is talking about the economic model which starts with MIDs, Netbooks and Nettops.

Jim: App stores will change the way the PC industry works and that is why Linux is going to win. Why…people can create their own app store. No licensing needed. More flexibility. [I totally agree with this]

Trend Three: We’re moving to making money from services and not software sales or hardware sales.

My opinion: There’s going to be a psychological problem with multiple (tens of) recurring payments to service providers. Carriers need to wrap these up in nice packages to hide the worry from end-users.

Jim: We need to prevent Linux fragmentation. Devs need to send code back upstream.

Jim also talks about the LSB (Linux Standard Base) and the need for standardization.

Challenge: Legal Issues. Jim encourages people to check the resources available:

Testing needed. Test, test, test! Jim highlights again the need to pass code upstream.

Finally: “We can be free and fabulous. Lets teach Steve Jobs a lesson….”

Jim wrapping up now and that concludes this post. More later and lots more when I get my N900. Live session will be set up as soon as I have the device. See you on umpcportal.com/live soon!

Early indications were that the Nokia N900 would be in peoples hands at the beginning of October but according to Nokia.de and Amazon.co.uk, the availability date has slipped out to the end of October with Nokia.de predicting the 30th and Amazon.co.uk the 26th.

Regarding prices, in Germany the street prices are settling at a low of about 520 Euro. In the UK, where sales tax is less, the prices are closing in on the 500 Euro mark.

Regardless of consumer availability, it’s likely that we’ll get a full hands-on at the Maemo summit which kicks off in just over a week. Any readers here heading up to Amsterdam? If so, drop a note in the comments.

More Nokia N900 information here.

What a stroke of luck. JKK was checking out the Nokia N900 information page in his homeland yesterday and spotted that it would be available to view in the flagship store from today. He’s now got a hands-on video (shown below) and we’ve rounded up his thoughts in a podcast, also embedded below.

Read the full story

Entertainment, Location, Communication and Productivity along with the highest quality internet experience possible on fast hardware and a focused operating system, in the pocket. That’s what Intel is aiming at with their MIDs and that’s pretty much what Nokia, with the help of Texas Instruments, have just launched with their Maemo-based N900.

It’s clear that the high-end, consumer and web-focused MIDPhone market will have more than one player and there’s still a long way to go before the N900 can be marked as a solid product but based on the specs, the form factor and the operating system it’s fair to say that Nokia have beaten Intel into the ‘MID’ market, stolen some credit and are well positioned to bring out more OMAP/Maemo 5-based products into the MID market.

By building a Linux-based operating system with a Mozilla-based browser on an advanced CPU with advanced graphics capability they’ve nullified some of Intel’s arguments and made it harder for Intel to differentiate themselves. I’m sure that there’s some re-writing of IDF keynotes going on right now to try and address it.

What Intel will have to do with their Moorestown-based devices in 2010 is create and highlight clear advantages for the customers, designers, manufacturers and software vendors.  Processing power is still an important card and Intel still have that in their hand. It’s nigh-on impossible to accelerate the retrieval and rendering of web pages so CPU power would really be noticeable. There are web runtime components such as Flash and Air to consider too but these issues are being resolved in the ARM community. On the applications side one could argue that innovation in the smartphone sector is richer than that which we’re seeing on the desktop so when it comes to the thousands of Linux apps built for X86, it’s kind of a dead argument. As for the developer challenge, I don’t know. Growing a huge but cheap dev community has it’s downsides so Intel / Moblin may find it an advantage that they don’t have an app channel.

As I mentioned above though, this market is not going to belong to one or two players as It’s going to grow rapidly and there will be opportunities for everyone. It’s now clear that the MID market is real and Nokia, along with Apple, could prime the customer base nicely for 2010 and beyond. Every time the man-on-the-street sees a fast, accurate representation of a desktop-style website in a pocketable form factor it is free marketing that anyone could take advantage of. Intel don’t need to change their focus on that MIDPhone and let us not forget that they have their fingers in many pies with the Atom product. Netbooks, Internet TVs and the automotive industry are all growing too.

We’ll hear more about he N900 next week when the first hands-on reports come back next week (I’m trying my best to get down there but it’s not working out right now.) and we’ll hear about Intel’s smartphone strategy in a few weeks at the Intel Developer Forum so it will be very interesting to see how people react once the excitement has faded in October.

Nokia have sent out a press release launching the N900 and Maemo 5

Nokia N900 running Maemo5

It’s going to be available in October for 500 Euro. I guess my Omnia Pro order is going to get cancelled now! I’m adding videos and images to the database. You can find them through the N900 product page. I’m trying to get to Nokia World for some hands-on next week.

Maemo 5 injects speed and power into mobile computing
August 27, 2009

The new Nokia N900: Computer-grade performance in a handset

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today marked the next phase in the evolution of Maemo software with the new Nokia N900. Taking its cues from the world of desktop computing, the open source, Linux-based Maemo software delivers a PC-like experience on a handset-sized device.

The Nokia N900 has evolved from Nokia’s previous generation of Internet Tablets and broadens the choice for technology enthusiasts who appreciate the ability to multitask and browse the internet like they would on their desktop computer.

Running on the new Maemo 5 software, the Nokia N900 empowers users to have dozens of application windows open and running simultaneously while taking full advantage of the cellular features, touch screen and QWERTY keyboard.

“With Linux software, Mozilla-based browser technology and now also with cellular connectivity, the Nokia N900 delivers a powerful mobile experience,” says Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Markets, Nokia. “The Nokia N900 shows where we are going with Maemo and we’ll continue to work with the community to push the software forward. What we have with Maemo is something that is fusing the power of the computer, the internet and the mobile phone, and it is great to see that it is evolving in exciting ways.”

Designed for computer-grade performance in a compact size, Maemo complements Nokia’s other software platforms, such as Symbian, which powers Nokia’s smartphones.

“Just as Nokia continues to expand and diversify its device portfolio, so it is deploying multiple platforms to allow it to serve different purposes and address different markets. While we have seen continued growth in Symbian as a smartphone platform, Maemo enables Nokia to deliver new mobile computing experiences based on open-source technology that has strong ties with desktop platforms,” says Jonathan Arber, Senior Research Analyst in Consumer Mobile at IDC.

More multitasking with Maemo
The Nokia N900 packs a powerful ARM Cortex-A8 processor, up to 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration. The result is PC-like multitasking, allowing many applications to run simultaneously. Switching between applications is simple, as all running content is constantly available through the dashboard. The panoramic homescreen can be fully personalized with favorite shortcuts, widgets and applications.

To make web browsing more enjoyable, the Nokia N900 features a high-resolution WVGA touch screen and fast internet connectivity with 10/2 HSPA and WLAN. Thanks to the browser powered by Mozilla technology, websites look the way they would on any computer. Online videos and interactive applications are vivid with full Adobe Flash(TM) 9.4 support. Maemo software updates happen automatically over the internet.

Messaging on the N900 is easy and convenient thanks to the full physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Setting up email happens with only a few touches and the Nokia Messaging service mobilizes up to 10 personal email accounts. Text message or IM exchanges with friends are shown in one view and all conversations are organized as separate windows.

The Nokia N900 has 32GB of storage, which is expandable up to 48GB via a microSD card. For photography, the Maemo software and the N900 come with a new tag cloud user interface that will help users get the most out of the 5MP camera and Carl Zeiss optics.

The Nokia N900 will be available in select markets from October 2009 with an estimated retail price of EUR 500 excluding sales taxes and subsidies. The Nokia N900 will be displayed at Nokia World, Stuttgart, on September 2. More information on Maemo is available at http://maemo.nokia.com.

Nokia N900 and Maemo 5 get official [Video] – SlashGear.