Nokia N9 + Meego: Did you know ?

Nokia N9 and MeeGo Factoids:

• The Nokia N9 running on the MeeGo platform has full out-of-the-box Skype IM (as well as Skype calls), Facebook IM, Google Talk, MSN messenger etc seemless integration.  Just add an account and it will appear on your IM messages along with SMS threads.  If you don’t want to view all accounts in one thread it’s very easy to switch between only viewing eg. SMS or any other of your accounts in the thread view you can do this by selecting an individual thread.  Most other phones running android etc require a separate app to view messages in for example Skype = no integration.

• MeeGo is based on an open source Linux kernel for mobile devices.

• MeeGo is the perfect OS for multitasking.  On the N9, just swipe to your right to see any open applications.  Pinch to zoom open apps, and close any apps not required to save running memory.

• The Swipe UI is unique to the Nokia N9 MeeGo Harmattan platform.  The UI is really a beauty to behold – so natural – and there are no physical buttons needed only the swipe of a finger.   The UI is really a credit to the MeeGo developers who have now left Nokia and are now working on a forthcoming new UI for MeeGo to bring it to their own brand new handsets in 2012: Jolla Mobile.

• Prior to the release of the Nokia N9, Nokia announced they would no longer be supporting the N9 and releases in major countries (eg. USA, UK etc) were ignored.   In spite of this, and the lack of marketing, the Nokia N9 has picked up a growing fanbase, and it is estimated that between 3-5 million devices have been sold worldwide.

• The Nokia N9′s aesthetic design (not hardware) was used in the latter Nokia Lumia 800 (Windows Phone).  While the phones are very similar to look at, the N9 has the greater screen size (3.9 vs 3.7 inch) due to lack of buttons and overall more hardware at its disposal.     The Nokia Lumia does feature more apps with nearly 100,000 available from the Windows Phone marketplace.  The N9 comes in 16gb/64gb variants with the Lumia 800 in only 16gb.  The Nokia N9 has a front facing camera, while the Lumia 800 does not (bigger brother Lumia 900 does however).  Processor of the Lumia 800 wins 1.4ghz vs. 1ghz both single core, however the Nokia N9 has more RAM at its disposal 1gb vs 512mb.

• Nokia N9 awards taken from wikipedia page:

In November 2011, the Nokia N9 won 3 out of 4 applicable titles (including design, camera and cellphone of the year) at a gala held by Swedish magazine and webzine Mobil.se.

In January 2012, the Nokia N9 Swipe UI was nominated for an IxDA Interaction Award.

In February 2012, the N9 reached number 1 in ranking “by rate” with a rate of 8.432 (out of 10) and Votes of 74,940, and also number 5 by daily interest hits in GSMArena’s ranking.

In April 2012, the N9 was awarded a Design and Art Direction ”Yellow Pencil”, in the interactive product design category, beating among others the IPad 2 and the Nokia Lumia 800.

It is a sad speculative fact that perhaps, given a full marketing effort from Nokia, worldwide release, and of course no declaration of a DOA OS, we may have seen more people ditching their shyphones and shandroids (editors note: sh=sheep, sheeple) and perhaps seeing a few more million supporters of the Nokia N9 and MeeGo system.   The meeGo OS is superior to either of those ‘other’ operating systems IMHO based on my own user experience and I’m certain millions of others will testify.

It is an absolute testament to the N9 that with bear minimum financial input (marketing, support) and distribution it has done as well as it has (3-5 million units)…. a mobile martyr figure destined for the tech history books maybe…

Do you see it differently ? Maybe the full Skype integration put a lot of mobile operators off   ?

Let me know what you think….  as ever, thanks for reading.