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Topic: Operating Systems

Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

Summary: Nokia launched its Meego-based N9---one of a handful of devices the company will try to sell you ahead of its Windows Phone 7 smartphones later this year---and provided a few hints about its next-gen efforts

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

Nokia launched its Meego-based N9---one of a handful of devices the company will try to sell you ahead of its Windows Phone 7 smartphones later this year---and provided a few hints about its next-gen efforts.

First, Nokia rolled out its N9, which has an interesting user interface, shows what the now abandoned MeeGo could have been and good hardware design. The calling card of the N9 is something called Swipe, which uses your finger to get back to the home page. The hardware is solid as usual and is button-free.

It's very easy to dismiss the N9 as a "who cares" effort. Nokia, like Research in Motion, is in a product vacuum right now and getting whacked on multiple fronts by rivals.

However, Nokia's Meego-based N9 does offer a few hints about the company's approach with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. Is it just me or does that image to the right highlight that tile metaphor Microsoft uses?

Speaking in Singapore at the CommunicAsia tradeshow, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that the N9 was the result of efforts by engineers to introduce new ways of using a phone, adding that many features in the device will be adopted in future Nokia products.

Nokia is also talking up three home views in a carousel for aps, social networking feeds and calendar and app switching. Sounds familiar eh? Nokia also is featuring a strong camera and map and navigation tools.

The subliminal message here is that Nokia will take its hardware and leverage Windows Phone 7 later this year. Admittedly, it's odd that Nokia is delivering this message via a dead-end operating system today.

Related:

Topics: Operating Systems, Microsoft, Mobility, Nokia, Software, Windows

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  • Nice looking phone

    It does rather make those who have been banging on about how Nokia does not have the ability to build phones powerful enough to run WP7 look a bit foolish. In fact, Meego apart I think that this gives us quite a clue about what the first "Nokiasoft" phones will be like
    FrederickLeeson
    Reply Vote

    • Nokia / Windows.. OLD TECH

      So no, they can keep the N9 and anything else they wish.

      If they can make MEego (Linux) look like windows (they have with the N9). It shows how much better it is than Win7. Oh well we all know where this is headed. Patents for free for MS<br><br>Not interested. Sorry Nokia, the only thing you have going for you is battery life. Everything else (including Win7) is a no go. <br><br>Win7 update Mango proved that. <br><br>You think RIM is in trouble. Just wait until next year. RIM will be valued higher than NOK.
      Uralbas
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        @Uralbas
        By next year Nokia will have been bought by someone. I hope the first act of the new owner is to send Elop back to the foul pit he came from. Then I hope the new owner dumps Microsoft?s bloated, inefficient OS and goes in a new direction. Wouldn?t that be ironic?
        Rick_K
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        @Uralbas
        Are you thinking with your head here or with your Anti MS heart. I left Nokia 3 years ago for an iphone. I was thinking of upgrading to an Andriod this summer but now will wait for a Nokia. Reason is simple they produce the best hardware, symbian let them down, now symbian is gone I will go back. Oh and there are many like me.
        saf312
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        @Rick_K Which is what???? Symbian? A dead archaic OS that its most loyal fans and followers have since abandoned? W7 is Nokia's only hope of reprisal, not Symbian and not MEEnoGO. These are last ditch efforts to build up anticipation for the W7 Nokia phones, which I am sure will be sexy like most Nokia hardware. Nokia is in trouble but they aren't completely submerged yet. They are in better position then RIM that is for sure.
        Bates_
        Reply Vote

      • How many times have you wet your pants today, Rick?

        @Rick_K
        You sound seriously pissed off that WP7 isn't getting crappy reviews.

        Or are you upset that iPhone sales have slowed to the point where Verzion and Apple admitted they didn't hit their estimates by a significant margin?
        Will Pharaoh
        Reply Vote

      • Uralbas - scared much?

        @Uralbas
        I'll tell you what - I've saved this link, and I'll make a bet with you today - next year when you're wrong, I will bring this out and you can make a formal appology and statement to that fact.

        If you're right, I'll do that.

        Deal?
        Will Pharaoh
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        @Rick_K It really sounds like you have Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 confused. You prove this by using the words like "bloated" and "inefficient" which WP7 is niether of and anyone who has ever used WP7 would surely know. Unless Nokia wants to pay back 1 Billion+ dollars to MS, they are going anywhere by WP7.
        spokanedj
        Reply Vote

      • Are you crazy...

        @Uralbas : Are you crazy... RIM is begin its death, Nokia will begin to live with Windows Phone OS...<br><br>I am sure you never try Windows Phone OS to tell this kind of ineptitude...<br><br>Nokia / Windows is not OLD tech... Unix and Linux based mobile OSs are Old Tech ... Windows Phone OS is completely new OS write from scratch and been released last year... Unix and Linux Mobile OS like iOS, PalmOS, Meego, etc ARE OLD Tech...

        I am sorry to inform you of that but Windows Phone OS is the future in mobility OS ... Windows 8 will be the same for Pad, Tablet and Slate...
        EricDeBerg
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        Palm had the majority marketshare and abandoned it's old OS (ie. symbian), and it's Linux based replacement (ie. MeeGo) and adopted Microsoft's Mobile OS and look what happened to them. My feeling is that Microsoft has had many years of failed attempts at a Mobile OS and they've gone from pretty substantial marketshare to near zero. I don't think they'll every be able to pull it off. It's not like Android that started out crappy and slowly got better. Microsoft started out crappy and with each successive remake of their OS lost more ground. Maybe Win Phone 7 can pull it off but at this point I might rent one but I'd never buy one. They've had too many chances. However, I have a Maemo 5 phone and love it. I'm more worried that MeeGo has lost some of that functionality (widgets). I'd still like to give it a go though.
        Grantmasterflash
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        @Uralbas I didn't know you had access to Mango? Give it up and stop the decption!
        jatbains
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

      @FrederickLeeson

      ANDROID says Goodnight to Nokia
      Sultansulan
      Reply Vote

    • Ironically...

      This phone is a mixed blessing, as it raises the bar for any other Nokia phone that follows, even ManGo phones. Only the purported Win 8 compares in most places, but that OS seems to be not coming to phones.

      The interface is clunky in parts, but mostly promising.

      Also, the "button-less" premise is simple and direct, even a nice competitive advantage. Nokia releasing WP7.5 with the three buttons, will make it look dated.

      Again, they could leverage the sliding control zone shown on Win8.

      Alas, the curved Gorilla glass and "airless" AMOLED are sure to appear on the WP7.5 phones.
      cosuna
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

    Very nice looking hardware but that's an ugly OS they got on there. Everyone knew meego was dead as soon as it was announced, I called that one. Nokia should not have wasted time trying to develop for meego and shifted those efforts to WP7. But if this hardware is any indication, Nokia is going to have one heck of a line up of WP7 phones catapulting both companies to the top.
    LoverockDavidson
    Reply Vote

    • You are Right!

      @LoverockDavidson : You are Right!
      EricDeBerg
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

      @LoverockDavidson Oh hell, I have to agree with LoverockDavidson! Where's the Valium?
      Graham Ellison
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

      @LoverockDavidson you're very right.. but what i think Nokia is doing right now.. is plain marketing strategy.. buying time..
      the shares are dropping very fast.. Nokia needs to keep some sales going on till a Nokia wp7 comes out to the market.. hence Meego.. hence the show-support to symbian devices still..
      and very true.. the hardware is gonna be some marvellous piece with a superb polished OS like wp7 on it.. wow.. Nokia is gonna capture the market soon..
      meethackman
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

        @meethackman

        While Nokia will try to sway new phone buyers with its cool hardware, it will be very difficult to sell WP7.

        Really, what can WP7 do better than Android or iOS? Nothing.

        Historically, Windows on the mobile phone market has been disastrous for Microsoft- precisely because it never delivered what competitors offered. How are they going to convince people to switch now?
        Aaln
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

      @LoverockDavidson I second you on that! Waiting for Mango on my Trophy!
      jatbains
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Nokia launches N9: Hints at Windows Phone 7 approach

      @LoverockDavidson That's funny, it looks a lot like WP7... I still think it looks ugly though :P
      snoop0x7b
      Reply Vote
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