At the Maemo Summit, Harri Kiljander shared a
list of the features that are important to Nokia tablet (N800) users.
Currrent users are developers who are very happy with their tablet.
(9 out of 10 of them would recommend it to someone else.) From what I
understood target tablet users are young, socially connected, into
technology fashion, and mostly from developed countries. (He broke it
down a bit more into several different types of users.) His list of
user interface features in order of importance:
- stability
- performance
- ease of use
- efficiency
- consistency of user interface
- personalization
- usage with fingers
- aesthetics: look of graphics
- one hand usage
- sound effects
People had lots of questions. In
particular a few people seemed surprised that sound was last. (I’m
not the target user, but for the record, I’ve turned off all sound in
my devices that I don’t use with headphones except my cell phone
ring.)
Well, I can’t argue with that list. I also don’t really care about sound effects.
What I miss is integration with other Nokia products. I’d have expected to be able to sync contacts from a Nokia cellphone to the internet tablet at ease. In fact it’s rather complicated.
Same goes for bluetooth profiles and support. All cellphone related profiles are missing, so it’s actually of no use (in combination) with a cellphone.
Maybe “relevance” should be a box that gets ticked too.
I myself am a developer, and bought a Nokia 770 a long time ago on the premise that it was an open source software stack, and thus would evolve in similar ways to other open source projects.
Even though I really liked (and still like) the hardware, even after a few years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Nokia tablets are a complete dead-end, and not worth investing my time and effort in.
The number one problem, is that Nokia made us dependent on their software stack because the hardware is basically closed. That would be OK, if they were good stewards of the maemo platform, but it’s just not good enough – devices like mine are just abandoned after a while, the software doesn’t provide any compelling features (user interface is disappointing and slow, etc); and there’s no real market or economies of scale; not for open source development, nor for commercial development.
If I have to go for a closed platform, I’d rather develop on the iPhone – the hardware is more than good enough, in a good form factor; they got the market/economies of scale; they integrated a good enough commercial distribution system; they raised the bar on the UI and software;
Yes it’s completely locked down – but I hardly get more freedom with the Nokias.
There’s statistical skew in the results by the way. The respondents were mainly those who are in fact interested in present devices, and not by those who are not. The #1 reason for that is that Nokia introduced internet tablet which can’t be connected to the internet. We are still waiting for the 3G data module (costs 2$ to manufacture, 2 weeks to add to the design) to be actually added into the devices.
@nona:
Nokia has just open-sourced drivers for the WLAN and parts of power management AFAIK.
I’d say that’s definitely a step in the right direction. 🙂
@fizze:
well, kind of. No WLAN for the 770. The positive news is that the new drivers are mac80211 based, so there’s a chance this driver will get mainlined.
@fizze:
It would also have been nice if it was integrated with the existing p54 driver, and if it didn’t need a binary helper, and a non-redistibutable firmware.
Still, as you say: definitely a step in the right direction.
@nona: n800 much better than n770 and n810 much better than n800. Nokia is becoming more comfortable working with the community. They are a large ship and turn directly slowly. At least they have a goal of open source; you know apple isn’t even aiming there.