Hope for Nokia?

I owe a lot to Nokia. Theirs was the brand I chose to do my texting and calling for the first three phones in my life. A 3210, a 8250, a 3200... but after the 3200, I moved on. Nokia's phones felt antiquated, even the Symbian powered N-series feels primitive, especially when the iPhone came out.

While Symbian has progressed through the years, I simply lost all hope for Nokia when they had the chance to redeem themselves in the intense smartphone race, but despite the touch screen and the widgets, it's still good ol' untouch-screen-friendly Symbian inside. It's kinda like what I feel for Windows Mobile, but the thing is, Windows Mobile has already moved on to a more competitive state, so compared to Microsoft, Nokia was deteriorating.

Until Mameo.

It looks touch-friendly, modern, and more importantly, it's open-source. While the Mameo OS does require specialized software, at least it actually has a Mozilla-powered browser to boot!

The hardware, which looks relatively slim for a slide-out keyboard form factor, is very promising. 5 megapixel autofocus Carl Zeiss camera, a huge touch screen, and Ovi features make the phone look very now.

But this is just a preview, so it's hard to say if the N900 will truly change the way I view Nokia as a brand. Fingers are crossed.