In Fremantle, currently being deployed on the Nokia N900, landscape is the mode used for the default desktop and general interface. This is due to many factors, between them, software heritage from previous Maemo releases, as well as the hardware design of the device currently using it.
However, the reduced size of the device, which makes it easier to carry in one hand, as well as an opening of Maemo to a broader audience has brought interest from many users have in having wider support for portrait mode in Fremantle.
Currently, applications can be designed to work either in landscape or portrait mode, and the methods to do so are available to developers wishing to implement them, but portrait mode is not mandatory for development.
The implementation of Portrait Mode across the whole Fremantle UI is a complex task, which will require skills from UI designers, software developers and some intensive, and possibly, time consuming, work process. It is currently unknown if Nokia is going to add Portrait Mode for Fremantle by themselves. In case they aren't, members of the community are interested in working to address this issue.
There are many challenges to add portrait mode to Fremantle:
Challenge 1: The UI has to be designed for it. This includes the re-designing of the dashboard for portrait mode, and if necessary, re-positioning of the on-screen buttons, icons and shortcuts when the user changes from landscape to portrait in the different menus and sections of the OS.
Challenge 2: The widgets: The default desktop is clean, which allows the user to install the widgets in the way he finds more comfortable, in any position in the screen. This implies the development of a method to change the widgets from their landscape position to portrait in a friendly and coherent way.
Challenge 3: A landscape input method has to be designed and developed. This would mean the addition of a portrait on-screen keyboard. This keyboard may be numeric (like a phone) or qwerty. It would need text prediction and correction capabilities. From the visual standpoint, it would be visually pleasing for it not to cover the whole screen and to be semi-transparent.
Challenge 4: Some applications will have to be re-designed for Portrait Mode, or another applications with similar functions will have to be developed and promoted (browser, media player, among others).