There has been a lot of buzz going around about Nokia, not planning to allow carrier customization for the Maemo phones (e.g. Nokia N900). Here’s a post at Nokia Conversations that clears things up (link).
Some quotes from the post:
“Many reports have erroneously suggested that Nokia will not support operator customization for Maemo devices – a fact that is simply incorrect.”
…
“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.”
…
“…we wanted to clear up these few important details that appear to have been misunderstood.”
The fact of the matter is that I and many, I assume, are fed up with operators ruining some devices with their bloatware or disabling features. I can stand the bloat, as long as it isn’t aggressive, replacing the default. For instance there’s no reason why say in a photo uploading application, you can’t have all the options side-by-side.
If they start trying to remove Skype, or VoIP (which history shows us they will) then I’m going to be very annoyed.
Nokia’s position is understandable but you can’t let them neuter the device.
That would mean a complete device lock-down. Well, in that case there is no reason at all to buy this device. Maemo is in usability a miles away from IPhone, Android or Symbian os.