Apps is still unknown and can change or solve; unlike hardware which nothing can be done.
OS can be improve, but if it's abandon, then no updates.
Apps should be the least problem because as long as the device/OS is kept alive and popular, apps will be made available.

Apps is not everything, although it's nice to have more (especially the good and useful ones). iOS change the game to be app-centric, everyone suddenly look at apps and forget the meaning of smartphone. If the phone only concentrate of apps, might as well call it app launcher instead of smartphone.

Anyway, what's app? What kind of app? I think most important is to have those really nice and useful apps, rather than tons of apps which are practically useless, just to show how many apps available.
I think it's very common that many websites or forums to list down the list of recommended apps in the front page. Even for people who just bought a new phone, usually they'll ask what's the recommended app to install, instead of searching through the tons of apps in the market and just to found out many are pretty much useless.

Another fact? Most people install many apps, but I'm not sure they use how many of it. Most people love to install many apps, but they hardly or rarely use them, even the same applies to Windows. I'm also one of them, but some apps do come in handy when you need them one day.
So, the most important I think is to have those app which truly have its use, that most people will utilize/use it always. That one app, is far better than to have hundreds of apps which are practically useless.

if it has viber and whatsapp, and the chinese/english input is not as hard as symbian, then i would gladly use it as my main phone already

True, many app stores have a high number of useless 'fart' apps so having a high app count isn't really important. What's important are the number of genuinely useful apps.

For me the apps I consider important are ebook reader, internet streaming radio, unit converter, currency converter, news apps like BBC or CBS, offline dictionaries, entertainment apps like Daily Motion, Movie Trailers, Youtube, jokes, illusions, GPS utilities like Smart Runner and social media apps like Whatsapp, Foursquares, ebuddy and facebook chat. There should also be a good selection of games. Let's face it, we don't buy a smartphone just for calls, sms and email.

For N9 to succeed as a mass market smartphone it need to have these general apps fast. The N900 is fine without them because it was never aimed at the mass market but the N9 will die standing. I foresee many users buying the N9 due to the seductive hardware but giving up after a few months due to lack of apps.

This post has been edited by KennyKB: Sep 14 2011, 03:07 PM

Facebook Chat, and several other social, I believe already built-in into the CORE OS functionality, there's no need to install 3rd party app for it. Your Facebook Account should be able to directly tie/link to your Contact Book and it'll pull all your contacts from these social network automatically. Your "Conversations" (SMS) should be able to support chatting with these social networks. Well, at least, it's already implemented in Maemo, I believe this should be better polished in MeeGo. For Maemo, those that weren't available, can be added through 3rd party plugins (e.g. MSN, Yahoo, etc).

Actually, those apps you mentioned, many of them were actually available on N900. The problem with N900 is, user. How many people know about the app repositories? How many people knows how to manage those app repositories? Those that didn't try to learn about the phone, surely they have no idea, an will only know how to check OVI Store which is useless for N900.
Once you learn, managed and use the app repositories... you'll find tons of apps available and many are very useful and much more powerful, some not even available on ANY smartphone. It really depends if you own the phone and how much you explore and know the phone.
If you really want to know, just try google it and see the apps available on N900, and all FREE.

Here's an old video which explains very well on using a smartphone and also mentioned who is N900 is not meant for (after all, current smartphone is like the early years of computers, if you had one or gone through before, you'll know the experience, plus, current technology, it's moving forward very fast):

What's the difference between Smartrunner and Spots Tracker?

of course the app i pointing are those practical and useful app instead of fancy app like talking tom but undeniably meego application is still very limited which i'm worrying.yeah,there is rooms for upgrading and improvement but the point is developers still coming back for meego since nokia abandoned it and Intel isn't full force doing meego.i agree to you,the day i chosen the first smart phone(6670) because i want something function similar to PC(read and edit office file) but in palm size.besides that,i(and believe most ppl outside there also) choose smartphone for apps as well.

Yea, many people are very concern of apps without going into the details or understanding (which I've mentioned in previous post).
Anyway, just trying to say that, apps can be develop later or anytime, but the hardware is different story, and the manufacturer support is also a different story. If the OS is stable and polished/properly "complete", then it's less of a problem, but if the OS is not complete (e.g. Maemo5), and the manufacturer stops supporting it and keep the source to itself, then the OS will be limited no matter how many good developers try to enhance it; just like N900, there's so many great customization and add ons, but due to no access to the full source, there's limited of how much they can do.
So, let's hope the OS is done properly.

Since it'll be limited units, there's no need to get every users; It's better to get quality or proper users who appreciates it than getting users who just want an app launcher device.

Let's do a survey. How many apps does a person on average installs on their phone (Nokia, iphone, BB, Andriod or whatever). 10? 100? 1000? 10,000?

Then come what may........will end my anxiety and sleepless nights!

Andy, will those apps written for Maemo5 work for N9?

No doubt apps can be added later but it can be a big problem if developers shy away. With Nokia producing limited units and not selling in major markets like U.S., U.K. and Germany will developers have the incentive to develop for Meego? Even if is a simple matter to port from Symbian Qt the crucial question is still, "Will they bother?"

I've been bitten before buying into Samsung bada's platform. There were great hopes initially that the app store will grow robustly but it failed to attract serious developers and the app store is mostly filled with themes and useless fart apps. After more than a year there is still no decent e-book reader, Skype, Whatsapp or Foursquares.

However N9 will be for those who look for quality apps rather than quantity. The pool of apps for N900 is quite encouraging.

Yup, the camera, video, design was main attraction for me. Useful if they dont allow cameras in the stadium to watch sports, can say it's a phone.
Next, is editing documents & other work related stuff. Converters, offline dictionary are useful
Apps related to internet usage, not so. If one is not from the major cities & on the move, casual surfing & searching is all that's needed. Any heavy downloading/streaming will cause the quota to fill up fast, not to mention mobile internet speed sometimes like turtle.

If you take a look at forum.meego.com, you will notice that many developers have started porting their apps from N900 to MeeGo and from other platforms like Android and Ios too. Therefore, the answer for your question is: YES! it will be likely that apps for Maemo5 will be ported to N9

Thank you wes c. Actually I thought N900 apps can run on N9 without porting?

Yes, just some minor tweaks and rebuild will get those apps working on N9, because N9 supports Qt/QML, Python and GTK+ which was used to write apps for N900

After some research I found that N9 can run Java apps (MIDP 2.1)
There is already a source for N9 java apps here: http://www.mobileheart.com/cell-phone-soft...9-Software.aspx

What i look forward is the meego social integration like the Nokia N900. The speaker for the nokia N9 is just average only let down for me

This post has been edited by aspire2oo6: Sep 15 2011, 12:10 AM

I just hope someday nokia will comes with qwerty meego just like my N900, the best qwerty phone so far. currently using n900 n torch but n900 still my main phone.

N950 comes with QWERTY keyboard but so far it's now only for developers...

And I will probably be waiting a few more years to actually get my hands on *any* N9 if I want cheap-cheap one

This post has been edited by FlameReaper: Sep 15 2011, 01:02 AM

There will/might be N900 developers switching to N9, so there'll surely be porting already done or in progress. Besides, Nokia already give away N950 to the developers some time back.

As for bada, I'd say it's different. MeeGo/N9 is not something really new, just like N900 with Maemo, it's not something new either, before N900, there was N810, N770, etc which runs on older versions of Maemo, many of those apps were ported to N900/Maemo5. As I have mentioned, many people might just check OVI Store, which you can say, there's pretty much nothing interesting there, and very little apps. Those who know about the repositories, will find more apps, but to find even more, then need to add more and wallah, heaven of apps, there're super customizable widgets that you can execute custom command, etc; No other smartphone have such powerful widgets. In short, if you check out N900, you'll most likely find that it's more powerful and flexible than N9, MeeGo looks like a more "trimmed" down OS from Maemo (which is a Tablet class OS), but if you take MeeGo Tablet version, then it's different story

I'm wondering if they can install FCam onto MeeGo/N9.

Most likely still need. Not sure about the technical details, but for some basics, at least the UI might need to be re-work to fit the different resolution? And some others technical stuff which I think those developers can explain better.

porting from iOS???

J2ME as well?

FCam is gooding?better than HDR?never try out Fcam.