The Maemo team has been quietly rocking Nokia's world for some time now. They're off in the background building (almost pocketable) mobile computers; fine-tuning touch interfaces and small-screen UIs; becoming experts in embedded linux; and bringing top-notch open source software and modern development tools to this unique mobile platform. For years, the Nokia tablets have sat on the side-lines as niche devices for hackers; but lately, the team has been changing the game.
The Nokia 770 and N800 have always faced an up-hill battle with market adoption given their lack of GSM/CDMA support. "Is it a phone?" is one of the first questions people ask when they see me using one these devices. Saying "No, it's a web tablet" only brings a look of confusion. Thankfully, the latest software releases, wider market recognition of UMPC's, and the iPhone release, have had a huge impact on the perception of the N800.
The Internet Tablet OS 2007 edition 4.2007.26-8 upgrade (released earlier this month) brought Skype support to the N800. While perhaps playing second fiddle to a Flash upgrade that makes YouTube work better, adding Skype greatly improves the likelyhood of using the N800 as a portable VoIP device. However, even more significant is the recent Internet Communications Software Update for N800. This update adds SIP support to the N800 for VoIP calls -- a feature that turned my N800 into my new desk-phone at work.
At Optaros, we use Asterisk to run our phone infrastructure. There are the occasional physical SIP phones in conference rooms, but in general, we use soft-phones running on our laptops to make and receive calls. The downside here is portability. Even using WIFI, a laptop doesn't make the best cordless phone. But an N800 does. The N800 is actually quite nice as a cordless phone; and with WIFI available in the office, at home, and at nearly every business in Austin, my phone extension can now be routed to my Nokia device and be available almost everywhere.
It may take awhile for the market to notice this, but Nokia is quietly taking the top-spot in mobile linux and VoIP hardware know-how. The Nokia linux tablets aren't quite ready for the general consumer (in terms of usability) and the marketing messages aren't there yet either -- but the R&D is, and the technology will be ready to drop-in and rock the mobile-phone world as soon as the strategy dictates.