Nokia N9 will be available in Sweden on September 23

Vlad Bobleanta  By on 22 Jun 11

The Nokia N9 is a strange device. Announced just yesterday, it’s going to be Nokia’s first and last consumer-focused MeeGo device, even if purists will eagerly point out that it doesn’t technically run MeeGo (Harmattan is rooted more in Maemo than MeeGo, as far as I understand it – correct me if I’m wrong). This smartphone that should, no matter what, not sell well, so it can reinforce Stephen Elop’s decision to dump MeeGo development and go with Microsoft, will become available in a few months. That’s become pretty much the standard for Nokia over the past few years, announcing devices they only ship many months later.

Believe it or not, the N9′s will be one of Nokia’s fastest high-end smartphone launches in years. Via Engadget, we hear from MyNewsDesk that the N9 will be available from carrier Three in Sweden on September 23. That’s about three months from now, isn’t it?

Conspiracy theorists will be quick to point out that Apple’s new iPhone will surely launch by then, no matter which of the latest rumors you believe, since basically some say it will happen in August, some in September. So with the iPhone out before the N9, some (if not all) of the enthusiasm regarding the latter will have died down, and the N9 will go ahead and not sell well, just as planned. Remember, those were the conspiracy theorists talking, not me. Although… Ah, never mind. Unless Nokia fires Elop very soon, and it won’t, Nokia will stick to Windows Phone for at least the foreseeable future. Let’s all try and get used to that.

So MeeGo? It was nice meeting you. Who’s going to buy the N9? My guess is that mostly people coming from featurephones, people who have no clue what iOS, Android, or Windows Phone 7 are. They may choose the N9 because it’s beautiful, or because of the user experience, basically anything but the OS it runs or the number of apps that are available for it.

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  • http://rollersmb.myopenid.com/ RollerSMB

    Geeks will buy it too.. you can install Android if Nokia drop the support ball for Meego.

    Another interesting thing is the Alian Dalvik, supposedly will let meego run native android apps, with same performance.  Would make the Apps argument kinda null and void.

  • Paul

    Lol, the only thing missing from this phone will be huge numbers of useless apps. Which many people don’t need or want. To say that people who buy this will have no clue is offensive.

  • http://grantmcwilliams.com grantmasterflash

    I was worried when I went from Android 2.2 to Maemo 5 since Android has 160,000 apps and Maemo has 600. In reality I’m only missing a OneBusAway app (which I’m writing) and a Yelp app on Maemo and everything else I used on Android I found. I was missing about 5 or 6 apps (or widgets) on Android that I needed. I think it’s time to realise that the sheer number of apps has nothing to do with providing a user what they need. Why do I need an app for every single website I want to keep up with? Won’t ONE RSS reader app work just fine? I’ve been looking at QML though and it looks like people can churn out garbage apps for MeeGo with very little effort so maybe that part of the market will be served. For the record I WILL buy this phone and I know the difference.

  • http://grantmcwilliams.com grantmasterflash

    I was worried when I went from Android 2.2 to Maemo 5 since Android has 160,000 apps and Maemo has 600. In reality I’m only missing a OneBusAway app (which I’m writing) and a Yelp app on Maemo and everything else I used on Android I found. I was missing about 5 or 6 apps (or widgets) on Android that I needed. I think it’s time to realise that the sheer number of apps has nothing to do with providing a user what they need. Why do I need an app for every single website I want to keep up with? Won’t ONE RSS reader app work just fine? I’ve been looking at QML though and it looks like people can churn out garbage apps for MeeGo with very little effort so maybe that part of the market will be served. For the record I WILL buy this phone and I know the difference.

  • http://grantmcwilliams.com grantmasterflash

    And combined with that thing that lets MeeGo run WebOS games I think all would be well. It would be interesting to see MeeGo running apps from Android and WebOS in addition to QT apps from Symbian. I don’t know of any other singe platform that could pull that off.

  • http://grantmcwilliams.com grantmasterflash

    And combined with that thing that lets MeeGo run WebOS games I think all would be well. It would be interesting to see MeeGo running apps from Android and WebOS in addition to QT apps from Symbian. I don’t know of any other singe platform that could pull that off.

  • MeeBuy

    ..article totally missing the point that this is an open source device.  MeeGo won’t fail because it has Intel behind it.  And… though Intel won’t be keen to port future releases to ARM devices, someone else surely will.

    MeeGo is about to get a huge push from Intel into netbooks with a give-away chip-set strategically speced to outperform top ARM devices.  The rise and rise of MeeGo is unstoppable with or without Nokia.  Though, quite possibly this wont be the last Nokia MeeGo device – I think there will be enough demand from people who would never consider a MS device, and appreciate that this is an open platform and a great bit of hardware. Whatever, in a year or so’s time all today’s uninformed press comment about MeeGo will make amusing re-reading.

  • Ke7oxh

    I’m a geek. I love Linux and open things. if i need a app i will write it and share it with the world. android is well just slow with it’s JVM (java is just bad for phones) windowz is lame.. so meego is the way to go :D open and fast (even if it is more maemo that is fine i loved the nokia n800, n810 and n900)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ET3BK7PYKC3WYHZZZPJINZTRJQ Martel Clarkak

    I like these ideas. It was silly. I’m done with that. CheapOair Promo Code soon spread to local schools. It may be a lost cause, but did you see where I was going with this belief?.
    http://couponnext.com/coupons/cheapoair-com

  • Prasenjit Bist

    can not understand Nokia, Elop’s firinga nd Meego. meego is anew OS and as promised they launched when they had a disruptive device will you agree to the fact that at the moment the device is truly disruptive nad the best in the market miles ahead of iphone ( not talking about app store only device.)

    Meego stays on Elop just gave some more time to grow and develop meego into a refined product, also its good that nokia was late this time better be late than sorry.

    Meego development is great as its on a open source mode there is a whole community around it.If you see Nokia’s R&D slide meego investment is till there . Nokia said meego is not ready never said we are dumping it. Burning platform refers to symbian. only symbian employees outsourced to accenture or fired not a single meego employee touched. Also Elop has said over and over Nokia’s future is in Meego which will drive the future disruptions.
    Let there be 1 device this year as promised , 2 next year but let them be disruptive devices that not only enhance nokia’s brand image but are also the best of the best elite products and must to have gadgets.

    I read Android apps will be supported on N9 gr8 wats wrong I appreciated RIM when i heard they will support android apps on next gen BB OS. So, wat i mean is one device with such a craze I have seen after a long time ppl are going crazy and even apple fans want N9. that is disruption. iphone was a disruption in 2008 not android which was a cheap copy but in 2011 right after 4 years comes the next disruption NOKIA+MEEGO+ N9 disruption. Give time to Elop stop spreading this bullshit the company will be back on track and in a big way. His strategy and vision are perfect wat needs is execution and after feb 11 Nokia has looked serious with business that drive and speed is there.

    I believe if executed properly nokia can slowly but steadily build a rock solid ecosystem around meego devices, Nokia and Elop never ruled out tablets and who knows the next big meego device is a Nokia tablet. the new over hauled s40, new updated symbian anna and windows phone 7 are a clear cut strategy for mass amrket while meego takes on head to head at the high end by creating a fan following of its own. Perfect and those who say Nokia can not support 2 OSes ohhhhh plz stop this crap nokia has done that but at large R&D expense, Elop did a brilliant stuff by outsourcing symbian development, Windows phone development other than the UI or app differentiators are Microsoft’s business and Meego is a community driven process where amny individuals other than the nokia developers will contribute. finally if u think intelligently you can see thats wat that means more better R&D ROI but lesser R&D operating cost. that’s what investors and analysts have been telling Nokia. Noki’s R7D expenditure around
    Symbian increased significantly after they purchased symbian and put the symbian employees on their payrolls. nokia s60 team or investment was never taht huge. Moreover how internal OS can be nurtured but at the same time focussing on other market leading OSes  as primary smartphone is something if required Nokia have to learn from Samsung. They are building an ecosytem around BADA bu their main platform are not internal but external OSes like windows phone and android.

    Nokia has the talent, will and every reason to do that because meego is really the next big thing if supported properly it can be an open source OS that can support multiple hardware platforms from smartphones to tablets to desktops to every device even more powerful than a iOS ipod, iphone and ipad ecosytem.

    Future is bright, technologies and talents available Nokia has to only execute. Nokia is getting a chance to not only survive but change the game and dominate do not let it slip away because in technology second chance ai rare… u got it so make it

  • Prasenjit Bist

    i guess supporting a RIm type emulator to support android apps on meego will be a great catalyst to quicken the lacking ecosystem around meego. look dear even iphone in 2007 had no appstore and no ecosytem so if u dream of an ecosytem from day 1 forget it the challenge is how quick u can build one. meego is a new OS and N9 world’s first meego product so those analysts who are saying there are no apps no ecosystem are real idiots ask them boss did iphone had it in 2007, if n9 gets popular which i believe it will and Qt is well supported meego ecosytem will be not only build up as a astronomical pace but will be the best ever and its time that every one acknowledge the power of open source efforts. but at the same time having tools to port android apps or existing apps to meego will help fasten the process as then u already build 50% of ur ecosystem at the cost of your competitor and there you are you win the business.

  • Prasenjit Bist

    no this is not the last this is the firsand the begining but there will be initially few models initially even in 2012 updates will be there and may be 2 models then oncewindows takes the midrange and Nokia starts consolidating meego will be at full swing. Nokia is right now focussing more on setting the house in order once volumes of nokia windows phone are out and revenues are stabilised just wait and see where meego willl be because meego is the future of Nokia devices……… smartphones and tablets.

  • Prasenjit Bist

    nokia must take initiative inthis regard before RIM does something concrete as this will build a quick ecosytem around meego at the cost of google. wat’s the problem go Nokia do it make their apps ur own…… just one emulator….. and the games on

  • Prasenjit Bist

    I have full faith in Peter Skillman and he has shown his class in the meego N9 UI. Nokia’s UI future is inthe hands of best mind .. also he is the same man who designed webOS.

    when Ari Jaaksi left a developer left but when Peter joined they had a great artist join them its easy to find a developer but hard to find a artist with technical acumen and Peter is that breed of professional. Hope he gives us more such wow moments and devices.

  • Claudio Gomes

    “We want Nokia to keep MeeGo” petition:
    http://twitition.com/3c3ah
    1000+ already signed 

  • haha

    When it comes to apps, I’ve read that N9 would be able to run  Android apps because of this Myriad’s Alien Dalvik thing. If this is basically what it sounds like, then number of apps won’t be a problem, right?

  • Open source fan

    I know about all different phone OS such as Android (with and without UI layovers such as HTC Sence and Samsung TouchWiz), iPhone, Symbian and even the previous Maemo 5 (only on the Nokia N900) as well as  Windows 7 phones.

    Have to say though, for a computer geek who love Linux and Mac OS _because_ it has nice UI as well as a BSD shell the thought of having an open source Meego OS smartphone is the absolute ultimate phone experience. I’d be able to connect to my server via SSH without jailbreaking the phone, and I can run my Perl scripts, MySQL, Java and what not on a Nokia N9 that also has a sweet UI!

    Plus, using Myriad’s Alien Dalvik the Nokia N9 will be able to run Android apps on it – completely transparent to the user i.e. it will look like any other installed, native Nokia app, and will run just as if it was installed on an Android phone. Fantastic!

    I can’t wait for the Nokia N9 to be available in the store, and if someone was to offer me an iPhone 5 I’d only take it to resell it so that I could buy the Nokia N9!

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