Never did get all the hype behind MeeGo. Another OS in an already crowded space, with one or two devices in a field full of Android competitors with far fewer apps. Windows Phone was a better decision. The hardware on the N9 was nice, though.

The hardware is awesome on that phone. Too bad Nokia didn't go w/Android. Maybe one day windows phone can lure me away.

siva: The hardware is awesome on that phone. Too bad Nokia didn't go w/Android. Maybe one day windows phone can lure me away.

Android didn't have a $1B bribe and no charge for the licences. If you have been following Nokia's stock you will know that they are choking on it.

/MS should have just bought Nokia
//or maybe they will, for ten cents on the dollar after the collapse?

v1.5 - "Cupcake"
v1.6 - "Donut"
v2.0/2.1 - "Eclair"
v2.2.x - "Froyo"
v2.3.x - "Gingerbread"
v3.x - "Honeycomb"
v4.x - "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Coming in fall 2012... "Head Cheese".

Nokia still makes phones?

Farking Canuck: Nokia still makes phones?

Course they're making phones. After all, their vibrator business hasn't been going well. Look at those tanking Symbian sales...

madgonad: siva: The hardware is awesome on that phone. Too bad Nokia didn't go w/Android. Maybe one day windows phone can lure me away.

Android didn't have a $1B bribe and no charge for the licences. If you have been following Nokia's stock you will know that they are choking on it.

/MS should have just bought Nokia
//or maybe they will, for ten cents on the dollar after the collapse?

Nokia was collapsing before WP7 was chosen for their revival.

I've never quite understood why people thought Nokia should have gone with Android. Here's why.

1) Nokia already had not one, but two, free and open source operating systems it could have used: Symbian and MeeGo. Symbian lacked the luster and long-term viability. It was stale, mostly abandoned by other OEMs, and had absolutely zero presence in the US. MeeGo was brand new, Nokia was the only OEM making phones with it, had no apps for it to start out with, and the alliance behind it (including Intel) more or less treated it as a research project with no tangible efforts to turn it into an iOS/Android challenger. Given that Nokia already knew more about Symbian and MeeGo than they did Android, it would have taken their software developers in Espoo more time to get familiar with the platform. Time is something Nokia doesn't have.

2) Nokia would have struggled to differentiate themselves in Android. Elop said it's becoming a commodity product in that particular market, and he's right. There's 3D Android phones, ones with LTE, ones with NFC, ones with big screens, dual cores, etc. HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and LG release so many products so fast that it's nearly impossible to break out in the market and establish one particular line as a consistent player. The majority of Android handsets sold aren't the Galaxy S2 or Nexus; they're the anonymous entry- and mid-level phones that people choose for low price and availability. Most are of poor quality and/or low specs. That's the exact opposite of what Nokia is known for, and little money is to be made in that market. Vanilla Android would have been the most reliable version Nokia could have gone with, and up until ICS, has lacked any design soul.

3) Android is a lawsuit magnet. Whether you agree with the pretenses under which most suits against Android OEMs are file or not, this is undeniable. Apple's legal department would have certainly tried to go after Nokia if they could have found something warranting action in an Android Nokia device. Apple is gunning to be the world's number one handset maker, and Nokia is the current top dog. Worst-case scenario would be that Nokia spends a lot of resources developing and promoting a promising and Android-based product, only to have Apple convince a patent court to forbid them from selling it. Of course, more people than Apple are suing over Android. Google has not stood behind its OEMs when it comes to Android lawsuits as much as Microsoft has stood behind its hardware partners in past suits.

4) One of Nokia's former smartphone execs, Anssi Vanjoki, compared using Android on a phone to peeing your pants for warmth in the winter.

5) Microsoft was looking for a top-tier handset manufacturer, and Nokia was looking to change something. It was a marriage of convenience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. People haven't talked about Nokia in the manner they are now since the early 2000s. The Lumia 900 was the darling of CES, which is good news for Nokia. Google has no vested interest in making sure that Nokia (or really anyone short of their current Nexus OEM) does well with Android. Would they have committed nearly as much effort into making a good handset with Nokia? Probably not.

As a layman, I would just like to say that "Ice Cream Sandwich" is a stupid name.

So stupid that once I read that I stopped reading the article and immediately came to Fark to biatch about it and learned nothing about either the phone or whatever Ice Cream Sandwich is.

Say what you want, but I doubt if that's what the developer wants potential consumers to do...

32oz High Life: As a layman, I would just like to say that "Ice Cream Sandwich" is a stupid name.

So stupid that once I read that I stopped reading the article and immediately came to Fark to biatch about it and learned nothing about either the phone or whatever Ice Cream Sandwich is.

Say what you want, but I doubt if that's what the developer wants potential consumers to do...

Is "Android 4.0.3" more to your liking?

Rent is too damn high: 32oz High Life: As a layman, I would just like to say that "Ice Cream Sandwich" is a stupid name.

So stupid that once I read that I stopped reading the article and immediately came to Fark to biatch about it and learned nothing about either the phone or whatever Ice Cream Sandwich is.

Say what you want, but I doubt if that's what the developer wants potential consumers to do...

Is "Android 4.0.3" more to your liking?

Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

/and if it's a joke, I don't get it.

32oz High Life: Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

/and if it's a joke, I don't get it.

This may surprise you, but they actually officially call it "Android 4.0", and the codename is "Ice Cream Sandwich". All the big tech companies have codenames for some products. Intel for instance has Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Tukwila, Merom, etc.

Rent is too damn high: 32oz High Life: Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

/and if it's a joke, I don't get it.

This may surprise you, but they actually officially call it "Android 4.0", and the codename is "Ice Cream Sandwich". All the big tech companies have codenames for some products. Intel for instance has Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Tukwila, Merom, etc.

Yeah, that makes sense, but normal names are better from a consumer standpoint (IMHO). I wasn't sure if I was reading about a phone or a celebrity's baby.

32oz High Life: Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

Version numbers tend to get lost in the shuffle, so these days, major releases have names (I don't know if these are the internal code names that they just release, or totally new names), but that's how it is, it's easier to remember a string of text than it is to remember a number.

It also helps when searching for issues, search engines are not particularly good at returning results for numbers. Whereas, search for "screen lockup ice cream sandwich" and guess what sort of results come back.

You can argue that a given name is stupid, but it's just a label, it's meaningless, and it will be gone when the next major release rolls out.

/IMO "Ice Cream Sandwich" is no dumber than "Natty Narwhal", "Oneiric Ocelot" or "Precise Pangolin".

32oz High Life: Rent is too damn high: 32oz High Life: Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

/and if it's a joke, I don't get it.

This may surprise you, but they actually officially call it "Android 4.0", and the codename is "Ice Cream Sandwich". All the big tech companies have codenames for some products. Intel for instance has Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Tukwila, Merom, etc.

Yeah, that makes sense, but normal names are better from a consumer standpoint (IMHO). I wasn't sure if I was reading about a phone or a celebrity's baby.

So you went to the article, you saw this: "Nokia N9 spotted running Ice Cream Sandwich, dual-boot in the works", and you thought the Nokia N9 was spotted running a celebrity's baby?

Rent is too damn high: 32oz High Life: Rent is too damn high: 32oz High Life: Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

/and if it's a joke, I don't get it.

This may surprise you, but they actually officially call it "Android 4.0", and the codename is "Ice Cream Sandwich". All the big tech companies have codenames for some products. Intel for instance has Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Tukwila, Merom, etc.

Yeah, that makes sense, but normal names are better from a consumer standpoint (IMHO). I wasn't sure if I was reading about a phone or a celebrity's baby.

So you went to the article, you saw this: "Nokia N9 spotted running Ice Cream Sandwich, dual-boot in the works", and you thought the Nokia N9 was spotted running a celebrity's baby?

Actually, I read the Fark headline and though "polished" meant, well, shiny so I clicked the link to see what the phone looked like (like a raccoon, I guess...). Then I got to "Ice Cream Sandwich", had a "WTF am I reading?" moment and immediately came here and started biatching.

True story.

/never did really figure out what kind of phone or OS it was...

32oz High Life: Actually, I read the Fark headline and though "polished" meant, well, shiny so I clicked the link to see what the phone looked like (like a raccoon, I guess...). Then I got to "Ice Cream Sandwich", had a "WTF am I reading?" moment and immediately came here and started biatching.

True story.

/never did really figure out what kind of phone or OS it was...

Ah OK, as long as you didn't think a Nokia N9 could run (or dual boot) a celebrity's baby.

/us super tech nerds are just fine with using weirdo codenames. I's likes my Oneiric Ocelot running on a Merom.

I figure my Bionic will keep my happy for quite a while.

No.

GibbyTheMole: v1.5 - "Cupcake"
v1.6 - "Donut"
v2.0/2.1 - "Eclair"
v2.2.x - "Froyo"
v2.3.x - "Gingerbread"
v3.x - "Honeycomb"
v4.x - "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Coming in fall 2012... "Head Cheese".

I think there's something not so subtle in there naming pattern that you're missing...

Hint: A B C D...

RoxtarRyan: I figure my Bionic will keep my happy for quite a while.

This for my EVO 3D. MeeGo sounds interesting, but I'm not going to buy a new handset just so I can play with a new OS and shoehorn Android onto it for my normal shiat I use my phone for.

siva: The hardware is awesome on that phone. Too bad Nokia didn't go w/Android. Maybe one day windows phone can lure me away.

I dunno, it's pretty, and the camera is nice, but there are a lot more powerful phones available for the money. MeeGo is the big selling point -- or would have been, if Nokia hadn't aborted it out of the gate.

lordargent: 32oz High Life: Yes, that sounds much less retarded. If that's the same thing, they should totally just call it that.

Version numbers tend to get lost in the shuffle, so these days, major releases have names (I don't know if these are the internal code names that they just release, or totally new names), but that's how it is, it's easier to remember a string of text than it is to remember a number.

It also helps when searching for issues, search engines are not particularly good at returning results for numbers. Whereas, search for "screen lockup ice cream sandwich" and guess what sort of results come back.

You can argue that a given name is stupid, but it's just a label, it's meaningless, and it will be gone when the next major release rolls out.

/IMO "Ice Cream Sandwich" is no dumber than "Natty Narwhal", "Oneiric Ocelot" or "Precise Pangolin".

Or "Tiger", "Leopard", "Lion", for that matter.

SacriliciousBeerSwiller: GibbyTheMole: v1.5 - "Cupcake"
v1.6 - "Donut"
v2.0/2.1 - "Eclair"
v2.2.x - "Froyo"
v2.3.x - "Gingerbread"
v3.x - "Honeycomb"
v4.x - "Ice Cream Sandwich"

Coming in fall 2012... "Head Cheese".

I think there's something not so subtle in there naming pattern that you're missing...

Hint: A B C D...

It always amazes me how many people in both Android and Ubuntu threads seem to take perverse pleasure in not understanding the concept of alphabetical order.