Nokia is preparing to launch the N900, a new mobile device built on the company's Linux-based Maemo operating system. Although the N900 is the technical and spiritual successor of Nokia's Internet Tablet products, it deviates substantially from its tablet roots and offers capabilities that push it into the smartphone market. This is an important transitional step in Nokia's long-term roadmap for Maemo.

At the Maemo Summit last week in Amsterdam, Nokia's Maemo devices vice president Ari Jaaksi provided insight into where the N900 fits in Nokia's Linux strategy and explained how the transition from tablet to smartphone will help boost the product's mainstream appeal.

The Maemo project emerged in 2005 as a humble experiment. The aim, says Jaaksi, was to determine if Nokia could build a viable open source platform for mobile devices. Although the idea seemed radical at the time, he remarked, open source has rapidly become a pervasive part of Nokia's culture and technical vision. When Maemo was first conceived, Nokia formulated a five-step Linux plan that would culminate with the delivery of a mass market device for a mainstream audience. Maemo 5 and the N900 represent the fourth step of Nokia's plan. According to Jaaksi, the next iteration of the platform will fulfill step number five and take Maemo into the mainstream.

Jaaksi regards the N900 as an important milestone due its inclusion of cellular connectivity. The original design philosophy behind the tablet, he explained, was heavily influenced by the theory that WiFi (and eventually WiMax) would eventually achieve sufficient ubiquity to make a stand-alone tablet device practical. As we pointed out in our initial review, the tablet was also designed to complement conventional 3G-connected cell phones on the assumption that users would find value in a companion device with a bigger screen and a more desktop-like browsing experience.

The tablet concept is not as compelling today in the mobile market where the iPhone and other modern smartphones are boosting expectations. Consumers increasingly demand desktop-like browsing on their phone itself and don't want a secondary handheld device. Nokia's tablets, like the rest of the MID class, exist within the awkward space between cell phones and netbooks. That space is shrinking into oblivion as products on both sides of the divide become better. Nokia's answer is to turn the tablet into a smartphone.

This transition, however, required Nokia to rethink some of the tradeoffs that were made in previous Maemo-based devices. Jaaksi argues that there is a complex relationship between device size and cellular connectivity. A device with phone capabilities has to be easily pocketable and comfortable to use in one hand. To achieve that, Nokia had to scale down the form factor and sacrifice one of the most compelling assets of its previous models—the large screen size. The 4.13-inch display of the N800 and N810 is dropped in favor of a 3.5-inch screen on the N900, but the WVGA resolution is retained. Despite the shrinkage, screen readability is still very good.

Jaaksi seems confident that the phone form factor and the new tradeoffs will add up to a product that has more mainstream appeal. In a humorous moment, he revealed that he has always secretly hated the "Internet Tablet" branding. "A tablet is something you eat when you are sick," he quipped.

Although he thinks that the N900 will resonate better with average consumers than the previous Maemo-based devices, he still firmly asserts that it is not quite a mainstream smartphone. He was impressed by the amount of attention that the N900 received following its online launch, but he worries that consumers might not fully understand the product's target market.

He discussed what he views as several key weaknesses in the N900 that he hopes to address in updates and future versions. One of the most noteworthy limitations is that the platform is heavily designed around the landscape orientation. The only major application that is designed for portrait orientation is the dialer. Support for portrait orientation in the device's Web browser will be rolled out to N900 users in a software update around the holiday season, he said, and future versions of the platform will have more pervasive support for changing the orientation.

Two areas where he feels that the N900 really delivers a top-notch user experience are calendaring and e-mail. The introduction of calendar support in the N900 is noteworthy because previous Maemo devices have not included that capability.

The N900 is a big step forward for Nokia and for the Linux smartphone ecosystem. The device delivers a relatively modern user experience, and it demonstrates how desktop Linux technologies can be adapted to work on handheld computers. As Jaaksi points out, however, there is still work to do before Maemo is ready to take on the giants of the mainstream smartphone market.