You are missing the poimt. ipod touch may be going great guns now but the days of a wifi only device is coming to an end. Once the new and improved symbian OS (solid browsing, apps, camera etc) hits cheap Nokia phones, it will displace the ipod touch and similar devices just as most music phones are fast displacing the iPod. The Nokia 5800XM is now the top selling music player here in the UK proving that converged devices is the way to go.

However LTE/Wimax may turn my thery on its head but lets wait and see.

Dont worry about Nokia, they know what they are doing just grossly underestimated. Those finns are quiet and placid but DEADLY - see how they will thrash Apple with patents.

Happy new year.

I just want better devices.

well there's an Apple for that. The iPhone is much better than N900 as an all round device. Its not for me though - I prefer the power and versatility of the N900, rough edges not withstanding.

an updated N8xx form factor.

what's the block to nokia for doing this?

must be an internal 'political' decision.

and it's plain stupid and wrong.

I've given up waiting/hoping now though!

Just keep my N800 as a video player for trips/flights.

big shame.

I've given up advocating the cell phone "companion device" (aka lower cost tablet) idea. It appears that established power bases (read: the Symbian and S40 groups) within Nokia fear the Linux-based newcomer so the driveless train rolls on based on the un-market-driven needs of those older groups, now deemed to be low and mid-range products.

Affordable companion tablet using (and growing) Maemo would apparently step on their new territories, although in reality the more mature and capable companion tablets would most likely help the sales of their less smart handsets!

I'd like an updated tablet to accompany my mid-range Nokia phone; and lot of people who have admired my now-defunct N800 might do likewise. Now if they wish to enjoy the live internet goodness they'll end up buying a bloody ipod, or one of the more mainstream Android phones, a market where there's actual competition and momentum (more obscure technical details aside).

Without a modern tablet I'll probably end up eventually getting a mid-range Android device too. At least that camp is flogging their wares like there's no tomorrow instead of intentionally limiting the choice of hardware (and as a consequence software) like Nokia does.


From GSMarena/Nokia:

Nokia tablets are way overpriced. A 3rd gen 8GB iPod touch is under $200. Compare that to the price of N8x0

I have a strong sense of déjà vu here remembering Palm's decision to abandon PDA's and focus on smart phones some years ago as well as their insensitivity to the importance of product continuity for core customer community and need for a flourishing third party application ecosystem. Nokia leadership seems to have the same mindset relative to internet tablets.

I deeply appreciate the efforts of the maemo open source community but I have to agree with multiple posters here that upcoming Android tablets - and even Apple iTouch - fill a significant price/performance/usability product space that the N900 does not even touch. Moreover, these products will likely be well postured to grow upward into the N900 niche.

Keeping the tablet line going will also make it easier to create the inevitable touchscreen laptops.

The future cost of foregoing the tablet user, or more aptly termed by Peet, the cell phone "companion device" user is exposure.

In addition to the millions of iPhone users now there are millions of iTouch users.
The iPhone GUI will be more acceptable to them than other alternatives as a front end for controlling dumb appliances that are now evolving with built in connectivity.

I believe a companion device will still shake out to be a viable market. It may eventually be larger than the whole "smartphone" market combined, as evidenced by GK's post.

People may begin to realize that taking that expensive smartphone with them everywhere when at times they just need access to a cell phone, may not be very "smart" at all. And that loosing or breaking one half of their communication electronics is cheaper and easier to replace when traveling and has less negative impact on productivity.

Where the iTouch looses ground however is BT DUN. The Nokia tablets played nice that way.

Not to mention more places are doing free wi-fi to buck the increasing data plan usage. I think companies like AT&T prefer users to switch to one of their wifi points rather than continue sucking up celluar data bandwith.

Then you have companies like Mcdonalds which plan on offering free wi-fi to everybody starting in 2010 to compete with Starbucks.

I do think Nokia should create Maemo devices without cellular capability (for a cheaper cost compared to Maemo devices with cellular capability). Sure you may not be able to use cellular data but you could always tether it to a device that has it if you wanted data access everywhere.