UPDATE: Nokia stands up for the N900 and tells carriers to play the game their way

As you know I already pre-ordered my Nokia N900 device and with the T-Mobile 3G support I cannot wait to get my hands on the device. I have received lots of questions about whether or not T-Mobile would brand and/or subsidize the device, but we have not heard anything at all about that yet. There was some very good news posted on Reuters today that stated Nokia was holding the line on the N900 in regards to carrier custom software integration and changes. This desire by Nokia to keep the experience for the N900 Linux Maemo device consistent across the board is to be applauded and it makes me feel even better about forking over some big bucks for the device.

I understand carriers like to add their “flare” to devices so they can obtain revenue from their special services and software, but in just about every case I have seen the carrier has lessened the experience and IMHO this has hurt Nokia a whole lot more than the carrier. I like that Nokia is telling carriers to take it or leave it and if a carrier doesn’t want to take it as is then so be it and let’s just go buy them as SIM-unlocked devices.

Apple has been able to get away with leaving every AT&T customization off of the iPhone so why shouldn’t Nokia be able to do the same and focus on the end user experience? Nokia and Microsoft have been catering to the carriers and allowing them to cripple the experience for the end user. I love what David Rivas, Nokia’s VP for devices R&D told Reuters,

Very clearly Apple, Android … are a whole lot less about providing customization to the operators and a whole lot more about providing a really cool, compelling value proposition to the end-consumer.

We have an opportunity, that we are going to take advantage of, with Maemo platform to play the game a little bit more along those lines than with Symbian lines.

Amen, brother! Let’s support Nokia in this endeavor and show analysts and others that they can succeed with a quality product without compromising for carriers.

UPDATE: There is a post up on Nokia Conversations that clarifies this topic a bit more and states that there is still support for and plans to offer some carrier optimizations on Maemo. It sounds like the statements made by David Rivas were taken a bit too literally and Nokia doesn’t want to scare away some carriers. I still hope Nokia doesn’t let carriers like AT&T (who are known to cripple Nokia devices) have too much influence on the N900.

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