The Nokia Maemo product line started here, with the Nokia 770. It started as simply a small linux device with 802.11b, a software keyboard and very little else. It came out long before netbooks, but at the same time Sony was selling their UMPCs for ~$3000 USD.
With a slow 250Mhz processor it didn’t do much but surf the web (with an Opera browser), play MP3s and let you ssh into your servers. Extremely cool when it came out, for being so small and cheap (compared to the Sony UMPCs) at ~$350 USD.
Next evolutionary cycle was the N800 which for the first time introduced a pop-out camera, a faster 330Mhz (later sped up by an OS upgrade to 400Mhz).
Still not included was a hardware keyboard, by bluetooth was added and the Wifi was upgraded to 802.11G. One of the cooler features was the Camera, which could swivel forward toward the user, or be flipped back. Originally the price was about the same as the 770, but dropped signifigantly after the N810 was announced. But the N800 still could use 2 SDHC cards for storage. It also included something no other Maemo device has had since, a built-in FM tuner.
The N810 included a stationary front facing camera (only) and with new software could host a USB drive and had GPS included. The N810 also included a new 
hardware keyboard and light sensor. It was limited to using MiniSDHC (or MicroSDHC with an adapter) and had 2GB of built on memory in addition to the 256MB of ram that the N800 had as well. While you could make calls through a WiFi, or Bluetooth DUN connection it still lacked to much to be used as a phone.
Nokia got a brilliant idea and took a step some might say, too far ahead, and released a second version of the N810 with a 4G technology WiMax. The thought at the time was that Xohm was going to quickly get WiMax in the US 
and around the world. Unfortunately Xohm had financial issues and sold to Sprint who took over and so far has rolled WiMax out in a few major cities with very little success. The Nokia N810 WiMax Edition (N810WME) was discontinued not too long ago due to lack of sales and the slow take off of WiMax.
Many Internet Tablet users think of their tablets more than just a communtion device, but as a handheld computer for specific tasks. Some thought about having a GSM radio included, but mostly for data uses. Not a lot of tablet users use the calling features, although Skype and Gizmo have been installed and used many times. Some buyers have complained because of the lack of preinstalled calendar software, but the tablet is more of a cloud device for Google Calendar, Docs, etc.
Now with the release of the N900 pending we’re looking at many people noticing the N900 and saying it’s a “phone”. Let me correct that now… It is an internet tablet that you can make and recieve calls from on a GSM network. The N900 is not directly competing with the iPhone. The iPhone is meant to make calls with and post to twitter, very little else. Comparing the two is like comparing a Netbook with a Scientific Calculator. The range of applications being made available for Maemo5 (the N900’s operating system) are MUCH wider than that of the iPhone.
And let me correct one last pet peeve of mine. Many tech review sites are calling the N900 by it’s part number (RX-51). Was the iPhone 3G ever mentioned in any review site as “MB504 B”? The Codename of the N900 is Rover, and will likely NOT be carried by T-Mobile USA, although it is likely to be carried by T-Mobile Europe. T-Mobile in the US does not like Nokia N series of devices because of Nokia’s unwillingness to cripple their product, Apple on the other hand…?
Post reprinted from Ki6AMD thanks so much its a great piece, Ki6AMD has a twitter follow which you can join here
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