Nokia putting foot down on Maemo, won’t allow carrier customizations

Google and Apple have both managed to wrest a great deal of control over the mobile user experience from carriers over the past couple of years — cheers to that, by the way — and now Nokia’s decided it wants a piece of that action with the introduction of Maemo 5 and the N900, which it says will be free of the branding that Symbian products frequently get subjected to. It makes total sense that Nokia would be looking to come play in that rarified air that Android, iPhone OS, and webOS are all playing in — a place where ARPUs are high, UIs are slick and modern, and the apps (and data) flow like water — but since the majority of customers for these types of devices rely on subsidies to justify the purchase, they’ll still need carrier buy-in to pull this off effectively. At least Palm and the gang have all proven that there’s precedent for it, and it’s definitely a noble fight to wage — no one wants a bright magenta interface, right?

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia putting foot down on Maemo, won’t allow carrier customizations originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This post is tagged: branded, branding, carrier, carrier branding, CarrierBranding, Customization, customizations, maemo, maemo 5, Maemo5, n900, nokia