Maemo Will Soon Power The Nseries
The first Nseries device to use the Maemo operating system was the N800 Internet Tablet, which I still have. The N900 is the first Maemo-powered Nseries device to have a built-in SIM card slot and cellular phone capabilities (ignoring VOIP, of course), and according to a Maemo representative at an N900 meetup last night, it won’t be the last. Ben Smith of The Really Mobile Project is reporting that Nokia will phase Symbian out of its iconic Nseries product line, replacing that with Maemo.
The move will reportedly be gradual, starting now and working itself out over the next 2 years, so that in 2012, all Nseries devices will be powered by Maemo. Symbian will be relegated to the Eseries and Xseries smartphones, so as not to be totally forgotten.
This is a major move for Nokia, who has historically only released a single Maemo-powered device at one time, typically around 12 months apart. However, the company normally launches five or more Nseries devices each year, and I personally hope they continue that trend with the Maemo-powered Nseries devices in the pipeline.
Certainly this is good news for the Maemo community, as well. The Nseries line is Nokia’s cream of the crop (with notable exceptions like the N81 and N96), representing the ultimate mobile device and technology. Gradually introducing Maemo into an entire product family is a big deal, and I’m definitely excited to see the improvements that this move is guaranteed to bring to Maemo.
