Nokia - not be so brave, after all... or just spin-doctoring?
A few days ago, Roy Batty News commented on a new story that Nokia was not going to offer customization of phones based on the Maemo Linux platform. Now, either that report was exaggerated or Nokia has had a sudden change of heart, deciding that their customer is king, after all... or… well, you can probably find some other interpretation, moving into the finer points of managing the media.

Anyway, below you can find an extract of the sinners’ repentance (or you can read it in at:[http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/09/11/maemo-and-n900-many-customization-points-for-operators/]. It is an interesting exercise on conveying assurance while keeping your options open:

This week, there have been a number of speculative stories suggesting that Nokia will not allow for operator customization of Maemo devices. Seems a few people are getting ahead of themselves. As we have said over the past couple of weeks, our plan with Maemo is to focus on the consumer experience – integrating applications and services from Nokia, our broad community of developers and publishers and, of course, from our operator customers. While we have not announced immediate plans to offer an operator variant for the N900, there are many customization points for operators on the N900. It would be absolutely incorrect to assume that we will not offer operators the ability to tailor future Maemo devices to suit their needs.

You would be forgiven for speculating, why would people get ahead of themselves.... is it maybe because it looked like an idea whose time has come? And deep in its heart, Nokia of course agrees. Witness, a little further down on the home page of Nokia Conversations:´[http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/09/11/its-good-to-be-open/#more-10282]:

It's good to be open
By JBC on 11 September 2009
LONDON, England – That’s the title of a panel discussion which took place at London’s BFI last night. Chaired by Russell Davies from the Really Interesting Group the discussion set out to explore the development and future of open source. Conversations rocked up because the head of user experience design for Nokia’s Maemo unit, Harri Kiljander, made up one third of the panel discussing the topic. Sitting in the audience, Conversations bumped (once more) into Jussi Mäkinen (we also rubbed shoulders at last week’s Nokia World party), in town to hobnob with Maemo developers during the onedotzero festival.

The report concludes, and it’s worth quoting at length: “When the speakers finished, it was the turn of the audience to drive the discussion. With a range of questions coming out relating directly to open source, one interesting one filtered through which struck a chord with this particular correspondent. That was how the commercial and open source worlds can work together in harmony, and actually create something where everyone benefits. Harri countered it very simply, pointing to his N900 and saying “this is living proof of it in action”. And you know what, he’s right.
After all, it’s good to be open.”