When Nokia and Intel announced they merged their mobile platforms, most of Nokia fans were really excited to see what the next generation of Maemo devices will provide and how it will look like. Many of them, including myself, were expecting the Finnish manufacturer to bring this new platform to the N900 and therefore update the device before even releasing MeeGo powered devices. However, Nokia officially made it clear that they will not do such a thing and keep this OS for new devices only.

The official reason for such a decision is that "It’s really about ensuring that you have the best possible experience designed for the features on your Nokia N900 device".... Of course, this is why Nokia is testing the OS on this device! The worst thing here is that Nokia decides not to update the N900 with what is supposed to be an Open Source platform at a moment when they have to face strong competition from Android (among others), that provides free updates for older units.

In all cases, we're very disappointed by this decision, especially because Nokia is already testing MeeGo on the Nokia N900 but wants to keep it for newer devices (to make more money by selling new units?). Many will say that the new update released lately (huh? people are still waiting for it to be available...) will make the N900 a better device and proves Nokia still supports it, which is true, but looking at it closely, this update bring nothing special; only features the N900 should have had when it was released. This also shows that Nokia keeps innovation for newer devices only and wants the old ones to be running older software.

Such a strategy could have worked a few years ago, but when many mobile operating systems are becoming open source and when Nokia has to face strong competition, maybe it's time to start thinking of building strong relationships with customers and providing them with innovation and what they really want, not just updates that bring nothing more than what the device lacked from the start.