Nokia N9: The best Android smartphone?

That is, an Android apps smartphone… Put aside for a moment the fact that the N9, Nokia’s inaugural MeeGo-powered smartphone, sports the buttonless design akin to the iPod nano, featuring great build quality and sleek user interface. That’s all fine but smartphones live and die by apps and the N9 has a scarce selection of quality MeeGo 1.2 apps from third-parties. That is certainly true when comparing MeeGo software to the 150,000+ Android apps and nearly half a billion programs for iOS devices.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith, however, reminds us on Twitter that Nokia preloaded on the device Alien Dalvik, a port of the Dalvik virtual machine that runs apps on native Android devices. Thanks to this software layer, you can run Android apps on the N9 smartphone (see Android apps running on the Nokia N900 in a clip below). Of course, at least three dozen other smartphones provide an integrated, native app experience that beats Nokia’s half-baked solution, although some workaround is still better than none. Here’s what to know if you plan on running Android apps on your N9…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXWEyKjwk2g]

Because MeeGo lacks the Android Market app, N9 owners will have to download Android apps from the places like Amazon’s Appstore for Android and other web-based bazaars. The Alien Dalvik inclusion is a surprising move on Nokia’s part. After all, they company turned Google down for fears of Android domination and ran to Microsoft’s arms instead. To allow apps written for a rival platform on its flagship handset is a sign of how desperate Nokia is for a healthy MeeGo apps ecosystem.While we’re at it, check out the N9 promo clip that borrows slavishly from Apple’s marketing language. Is that Nokia’s version of Apple’s design tsar Jonathan Ive?

via Slashgear

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LffDQHp5E0]