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Ask HN: Is Meego and the N9 a game changer?

6 points by winsbe01 ↗ HN
I'm sure by now, you've heard of Nokia's upcoming Meego smartphone. I, for one, think it looks absolutely stunning. It's nice to see Meego finally getting its time to shine, however I'm not sure if it will be widely embraced (think WP7).

What do you all think?

2 comments

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nextparadigms
I think Meego is a lot closer to loyal Symbian/Nokia users' needs than WP7. Therefore, the N9 has the potential to sell more units when it's launched than Nokia's first 1-2 WP7 models, even without an ecosystem behind. But if it sells in big numbers, the ecosystem might start growing as well. There seem to be quite a lot of QT developers that are excited about it.

But if Nokia wants Meego to really succeed (and they might not because of the partnership with MS), and compete with Android and iOS, they need to push it hard to other manufacturers, the same way Google has done, and Microsoft as well with WP7.

This is critical in Meego's long term success and accelerating the growth of the ecosystem behind it. Nokia is still big, and it still has many fans, but I really doubt they can become a strong 3rd platform unless they get at least a few other manufacturers to use Meego as an alternative to Android.

LG has already said they'll build a Meego device. If they could get a few more on board it would be great. They also need to push it as a direct Android competitor in other areas, such as in cars, in TV's, and wherever Android has been used these days. Meego is the only other OS that can be on any device that Android can be on. I like Android, but I'd love to see some direct competition from Meego in all areas.

ZeroGravitas
More like game over.

I was geniunely excited about Maemo, but Nokia made too much money in the early part of the century and became a bloated bureaucracy. They made a few good decisions, but plenty of misteps and blunders too.

Simply the fact that they're going ahead with this orphan platform rather than using those resources to bring forward WP7 devices makes them look stupid.