TheDigest Mon, 31 Aug 2009, Volume 02, Number 1400


Sent to: 572 subscribers

In today's TheDigest 03 messages
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Topics

  1. Sharp Introduces a 5" ARM based notebook
  2. Re: Nokia N900 goodbye Symbian, hello Maemo!
  3. Re: Nokia N900 goodbye Symbian, hello Maemo!

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Date: 27 Aug 2009 22:06:46 +0000
From: "Steve Morton" <address truncated>
Subject: Sharp Introduces a 5" ARM based notebook


Hi
I noticed this story on Reg hardware today:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/08/27/sharp_linux_arm_netbook/
The dimensions are very similar to the 5MX.

No international launch dates or prices yet...

Steve

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Date: 28 Aug 2009 13:05:21 +0000
From: Chris Handley
Subject: Re: Nokia N900 goodbye Symbian, hello Maemo!


Hello Itamar,

On 27 Aug 2009, Itamar Engelsman wrote:
> Hi Chris, I wonder what
> that  means for Symbian as a Company. If Nokia, a miain shareholder, > would stop  using their software would they cease to exist and would the > Psion/Symbian  platform totally disappear ?

The best analysis (only?) of the situation so far seems to be in one of the links I previously posted: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-rx51-n900-en.shtml(Read the several pages of text near the top of the article, under "The rise of Internet Tablets".)

He seems to think that Nokia have been planning to ditch Symbian for Maemo since they open sourced Symbian, which seems plausible.

He also suggest that the smaller mobile phone makers might find Symbian attractive, if they joined efforts on Symbian, so that they can compete against their large rivals who can afford to build their own OS (e.g. Nokia=Maemo, Apple=iPhone/OSX, Palm=Pre/WebOS, Rim=Blackberry).  He also says that Sony-Ericcson could have been one of those smaller companies, but it seems they may have decided to go with another OS instead...

So Symbian still has a chance of living in SOME form, we will have to wait to see how it plays out.  Although I haven't really been interested in Symbian since it was dumbed-down to be S60-only.  And of course Psion (as a commercial platform) has been completely dead for some years.

Regards,
Chris Handley

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Date: 30 Aug 2009 20:28:55 +0000
From: Chris Handley
Subject: Re: Nokia N900 goodbye Symbian, hello Maemo!


I previously wrote:
> The best analysis (only?) of the situation so far seems to be in one of > the links I previously posted: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-rx51-n900-en.shtml> (Read the several pages of text near the top of the article, under "The
> rise of Internet Tablets".)
> He seems to think that Nokia have been planning to ditch Symbian for
> Maemo since they open sourced Symbian, which seems plausible.

Here is an alternative (and perhaps positive) take on the situation:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/08/12/nokia_maemo_smartphone/
I certainly would not be surprised to see Nokia continue to use Symbian for low-end mobiles, but I imagine that they hope to eventually use Maemo for all their high-end phones (it would not make sense to put development effort into 2 OSes!).  So if Symbian is to develop further, it will have to be done by someone else...

Regards,
Chris Handley

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