Nokia’s highly controversial N9 is due to come out during the fall, but putting an exact date on the launch has been rather difficult … until now that is. Nokia Sweden has put up a page with a countdown timer that’s set to expire on September 23rd at 10:00 local time. Could this be when the device actually starts coming to stores? More importantly, what other territories will the N9 be available in and how many are Nokia expecting to sell. Earlier rumors have suggested that only 100,000 of this coveted Linux powered device will hit the market, and even if it does manage to sell out, Nokia has absolutely no plans at making future MeeGo powered handsets. Thank Stephen Elop for that, the new CEO of Nokia who came from Microsoft and surprise surprise, has decided that the future smartphone operating system of choice for the world’s largest producer of handsets will be Windows Phone.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the N9. One camp feels that if the out of box experience is solid enough, then it doesn’t matter how large the ecosystem around it actually is. Most folks only talk, text, and browse the web. The other guys feel that because Nokia has officially said that MeeGo will be kicked in the face after being pushed to the curb, the N9 makes absolutely no sense since developers will ignore the device and more importantly Nokia will let software updates languish since they’ll have all of their engineers working on porting over the best parts of MeeGo to the company’s feature phones.
We leave it to you to figure out whether or not the N9 is a wise purchase. It represents a future that might have been if only Nokia has more time, and for that reason alone enthusiasts are likely to snap one up. Possibly two, to keep the other sealed in the closet.
[Via: This is my next]
