Not two days after the first rumors of a new Nokia ultraportable mobile Internet device/netbook surfaced comes news that Nokia is already seeking OEM’s in Taiwan for a possible entry into the netbook market.

Two Taiwan notebook makers have been cited as sources and it is said that Compal Electronics and Foxconn Electronics are two of the top picks for who’s going to make Nokia’s first netbook. Wow, what OS will they run on it? Symbian? Linux/Maemo? Android? Windows? It hasn’t been confirmed, and currently Nokia is said to be choosing between Qualcomm’s Snapdragon or Intel’s Atom as a platform for their netbook to be based on.

Check the link here . http://tinyurl.com/anfquq

Does this has anything to do with Maemo 5 device ?

Given that Maemo 5 targets OMAP3, not Snapdragon or Atom, that's a definite no. The timing is also way wrong; this is probably for a 2010 or maybe late 2009 device.

Because this idea of Nokia and netbooks seems to have come out of nowhere, my huge ego makes me wonder if I had any influence.

LOL, we all like to think our comments here have some influence, don't we? Some of them very well may on the NITs, but not on a big decision like whether or not Nokia enters the netbook market. And this specific suggestion was made in rather dramatic fashion by Internet Tablet School in October 2008.

At the risk of being "Generalled," I'll paraphrase another forum member:

"Nobody reads or cares about that noob site."

No, you're absolutely right. It's my huge ego that's usually clueless and wrong. I tell it not to, but it posts anyway. We're gonna have a chat later.

Given that the Snapdragon is a branch of the ARM architecture with openGL ES 2.0, why would Maemo 5 be a definite no?

Maybe the predicted (or is it known yet?) finger-centric design might pose some issues with a keyboard-based system, even if it also has a touch-screen.

If Nokia really intends to create some momentum for Maemo and the ARM platform and if they're actually planning to enter the netbook market then the MS-centric x86-platform (Atom) wouldn't make too much sense, especially with MS (and Apple?) holding the upper hand with their existing software eco-systems.

Using ARM Nokia would still face competition from Google's Android and other Linux distros (like Ubuntu) but at least hardware-wise Nokia could be growing (massively given their economies of scale) in that smaller pond while playing up ARM's strengths like its battery life and thermal qualities.

Or Nokia might do what HP did with their (Atom-based) Mini netbook and just use Ubuntu with homegrown interface improvements.

They might also be exploring the market too, and no actual device is planned. Personally, I'd love to see Nokia produce a netbook. But reality says, it's safer to research and test and enter late than to rush in with guns blazing like companies did in the past and expect to at least come out with enough wins to offset your losses.

Because Snapdragon isn't OMAP3. Nokia has stated in public announcements (there's a slide showing a comparison chart of the different Maemo platforms to date) that Maemo 5 is for OMAP3, and the SDK releases so far have OMAP kernels. That doesn't mean it couldn't be ported to Snapdragon, but it seems unlikely they'd go back and change things they've already made public.

And again, the timing doesn't work out. This far along with the SDK, and this close to a supposed release date, is way too late to be looking around for potential manufacturing partners.

in euope,opeators offer subsidised netbooks with a 3G usb dongle and a data plan, and these offers are becoming rather successful. Nokia may see that this market is opening a door in the mobile market to new entrants like asus, and it may seem wise to ocupy the space with a netbook targeting this market.

Hey, if they offered me a good quality netbook free with a 3g plan of reasonable cost, I'd actually give it reasonable consideration. But not if they're gonna rob me blind while tickling me with a netbook. The rather ugly cost of 3g services vs what little you get is what's killed my interest in even bothering to have one right now.