Nokia Linux powered tablet N800

by dragos on January 16, 2007 · 0 comments

in Digital Tools, Productivity & Effectiveness

Well, I was a Linux fan for about 9 years and you just can’t beat this in a few months. So, after the glamourous launch of the iPhone, I dressed up more relaxed and stepped back to my old world to see what happened lately in this specific area. And hoop, voila: in a very quiet way, Nokia unveiled the new N800 tablet that runs Linux. The gadget is already on sale in US according to this site.

So, what can you do with a tablet? You can browse the Internet, make voice calls, listen to the music. Sounds familiar? Sounds even like a Steve Jobs keynote? Yes, because this is what it is actually, a device that silently compete with the iPhone.

Nokia Tablet N800Just a few words about the rough power of this beast and then more to some philosphical considerations about why and when and how…

N800 got: Wi-Fi (WLAN: 802.11b/g), Bluetooth and USB for the wire-addicted. Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP2420 at 320 Mhz, RAM 128 MB and flash memory 256 MB. There are also 2 expansion slots that can accomodate full-size SD cards. Screen resolution is 800×400. In a word: a nice beast to have around.
Ok, so which one will be? There are at least 3 factors to take into consideration:

  1. Design: I think here the iPhone will lead. I don’t think that this iPhone is necessarily beautiful but it leverages on the very slick iPod. Everything that resembles to an iPod is cool. Compared to that, the Nokia table looks more like an electrician’s tool.
  2. Mainstream capabilities: There is the big bottleneck, and I think this is where the battle will actually be. Why? Because Applce runs a closed software platform in the iPhone, and will not allow third-party application on it. On the other hand, Nokia runs Linux and in the Open Source world there are gazillions of applications that you can think of. Might not be that easy to install them in the first place, because we all know Linux never actually won a usability contest, but it can eventually do its job, and that will count.
  3. Price: Nokia N800 costs around 400 bucks, the cheapest iPhone costs 500 bucks. But you have to buy at least 2 memory cards, 2 GB each, in order to level the memory of the cheapest iPhone, which can lead to approximately the same price. But the iPhone will also carry out some phone operator costs also, which coms in monthly payments, and that will add up too. On the other hand, Nokia can only make Internet-based calls.

The no. 3 is an arguable thing. It can be solved in a very easy way on an economical approach: lower the price and boom, you have a leap ahead. That’s simple.
But no. 2 and no. 1 are very difficult stuff. They relies on the personal touch of a person. First, comes the way it looks, and more important, the way it makes you look. If those gadgets could reach for themsleves to the title of the fashionable device of the moment, no. 2 will become obsolete.

If no, there will be a great battle of technologies that will be held silently in front of us. Which one it will win: OpenSource or CloseSource? Close control or relaxed creativity?

It’s very difficult to answer this, and, as much I would like Linux to have a headstart in this – old habits die hard, didn’t they? – I think iPhone will win. But it will be a close race.

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