Nokia has been keeping Maemo pretty quiet for the last few years. For those not in the know, Maemo is the new OS that Nokia has been developing for the last four years. Maemo was originally slated only for Nokia’s tablet lines, however recently word has come from deep inside Nokia that plans may be afoot to replace the aging Symbian S60 OS with Maemo, and at least one S60 device is going to get the new OS for sure, according to internal sources. Little was previously known about this OS which is now in its 5th version called “Frementle” but all that has changed today.

One of the most significant ideas for Maemo is the addition of advirtising widgets in the homescreen. Nokia’s thought is that consumers would be willing to put up with ads in exchange for lower service or product costs. Will users bite? Take a look at the main points and we know concept screenshot of the ready-for-mobile-phone upcoming version nicknamed “Harmattan.”

What we now know is:

• The newest release has been overhauled completely from previous releases in order to make it more “phone friendly”
• The home-screen, called “Harmattan Direct UI,” will essentially be a long verticle scrolling screen that allows for the addition or subtraction of widgets
• The widgets will be tightly tied to the functions of the phone, so for instance if an appointment is made with a contact, the appointmoint shows up in the calender widget and the the location shows up on the map widget
• Advirtising widgets will be stuck between the ones you actually want, and will not be removable or modifiable (boo)
• Nokia is likely to give control the advirtising widgets (and their content) to the carriers, possibly taking a cut of the monies
• Nokia’s endgame with the ad widgets are to make them personally tied, so if the GPS shows you near a certain store or chain you see ads for that chain, or if you browse for certain content, say “Cell Phones” you might see matching ads for that. Nokia hopes to conquer the cloud services with this new business model.
• The release of Maemo Harmattan’s build (the one designed for mobile phones) is Q4 2010 or Q1 2011 at the earliest

This definitely looks to be an interesting development for Nokia, but we are curious where the advirtisements will go. Consumers might simply be sick and tired of ads penetrating every part of our lives. It is however good to know that Nokia has a plan to replace Symbian S60, which is defintely starting to feel a little long in the tooth.

[Via MobileCrunch]