N900 Videos

The general consensus is that this is the weirdest product launch ad anyone has ever seen. Heck, for many of us it’s the weirdest ad we’ve ever seen, period.

There’s no denying that it grabs our attention. Nokia’s viral marketing department is on the pulse alright.

The accompanying text on maemoproject.com makes interesting reading too:

The release of the N900 sees the culmination of months of testing, tweaking and hard work, all to ensure that you get the device you have been hoping for.

The project however, has only just begun…

It’s all of you out there – the developers, the fans, the consumers – who are going to dictate where the device goes and what it is capable of. Get thinking, be inventive, use your imagination and push the N900 to its limits. The work you do will make this device better – better than even we thought it could be. And that’s how it should be.

The video is also available with subtitles in German, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish. If you know any of those languages, the subtitles can help with some of the words that are not clearly audible in the English version.

Although the first part seems to be about performance, it’s nice to see that the second part emphasizes user generated content, open source, and freedom of expression.

After watching this ad again, it reminds me of what Ari Jaaksi, head of Maemo at Nokia, said on his blog:

• Maemo is rough on the edges. It is a bit dangerous. It is open to experiments. It is about community involvement. I want these to stay. I do not like boring cars, either.

Indeed!