Earlier this week Nokia unveiled the N9, both their first and last device to be built using the MeeGo operating system. To say the internet went wild over this thing would be an understatement. Vlad Savov from Engadget penned an editorial about 15 hours ago wondering why Nokia is giving up this fine platform; his article now has close to 1600 comments. Paul Miller, part of the massive group of Engadget writers who left to start a new life at SB Nation and are writing at This Is My Next while their new site is being built, also wrote wondering why Nokia is getting rid of the best work they’ve done in years; his article now has close to 200 comments. John Gruber, arguably the most loyal Apple fanboi on the face of the planet, proclaimed: “Four and a half years after Apple announced the iPhone, Nokia has now announced a worthy rival.” Coming from him, that’s about the closet thing to a compliment Nokia will ever get.
So yea, people love the N9, but the Finnish handset maker failed to mention when it would ship and how much it would cost. An advertising campaign by Finnish operator Saunalahti has already begun, and over in Sweden the local operator Three has announced that they’ll be shipping the N9 on September 23rd. That still doesn’t solve the pricing bit. Eldar Murtazin, Editor in Chief of Mobile-Review, said in a tweet (Russian translated to English): “Price N9 for Russia will be such – 16 GB about 25 thousand, 64 GB of 30 thousand rubles. September or later. Like the price?”, which comes out to $890 for the 16 GB version and $1,070 for the 64 GB variant.
Are you going to pick up the N9 knowing full well that it’s not going to be supported by developers, by Nokia, by anyone? The folks over at 37 Signals say “fuck the platform”, and that if Nokia can nail the 10 or so core applications that ship with the N9, it doesn’t matter how large the ecosystem around the N9/MeeGo is.