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Nokia to support the N9 for years to come, promises software updates

Categories: MeeGo, Nokia
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, July 7th, 2011 at 12:25 AM
n9_colors

Late last month Nokia introduced their first and last device to run on MeeGo, the N9. Despite the wide praise it’s received from the industry, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said in an interview he has decided that the Finnish handset maker will not be releasing any additional MeeGo devices and then further reinforced the message that the company is firing on all cylinders to get a device running Windows Phone out to market by the end of this year. This has not only upset many Nokia loyalists, but people who were formerly “in love” with the Nokia brand, but decided to switch to either Android or iOS until Nokia got their act together and came out with something competitive. Make no mistake about it, the innovative “Swipe UI” of the N9 is highly competitive, and we’re still wondering why it’s being sent to the shredder. Because the N9 will have such a short lifespan, and rumors are that less than 100,000 will be produced, many are asking themselves why they should even bother purchasing it? Looking to ease people’s suspicions, Klas Ström, Head of Portfolio Management at Nokia, recently tweeted:

We will support #NokiaN9 for years AND release several SW updates… #nottoworry :)

Is that reassurance going to be enough? We severely doubt it. Bug fixes will be released, there’s no question about that, but new versions of MeeGo and additional features? Not going to happen. Additional rumors say that the folks who worked on the “Swipe UI” will now be tasked to make it run on Series 40, Nokia’s feature phone operating system, which would make Series 40 one hell of an operating system, but one that will probably not offer the same type of flexibility that a fully open source, fully hackable platform does.

Watch this space to see how things turn out.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NQAOAEBPCWGJWPIRBBPRTP4OYY Drizzle

    meego a truely swipe os. nice!

  • Anonymous

    The “100,000″ being made figure relates entirely to the N950 not the N9 – this rumour and incorrect association with the N9 has been spread (maliciously?) by none other than Eldar Murtizan.

    Regarding support, if you follow the MeeGo community mailing list and forum you’ll see that new features are already being discussed by Nokia developers for future releases of MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan (eg. folders for the App view is promised in a future update).

    So maybe Klas isn’t so far off the mark.

    Interesting comment about Swipe on S40; it’s a Qt based UI, so why not once Qt becomes available on S40. The thing to remember about S40/Symbian/MeeGo is that the platform is not S40, Symbian or MeeGo – the platform is Qt, and will be (and already is in fact) a much bigger ecosystem than WP7. Maybe Nokia will realise this before it’s too late.

  • Kikez

    NOKIA N9… I want it…the best phone… coming soon

  • Kikez

    NOKIA N9… I want it…the best phone… coming soon

  • Kikez

    NOKIA N9… I want it…the best phone… coming soon

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Quintus-Murray/1469036783 Quintus Murray

    sadly weak phones DON’T HELP unless we see a complete BEAST RUNNING QT MEEGO/SYMBIAN sadly QT will never take off untill a galaxy S2 like phone running it is released period!!!!!!!!