Well, since I started this thread, I can explain what I personally mean with Joe Average.

Average Joe Average:

My Joe Average is the guy who isn't in any way stupider or more ignorant or less prone to make smart choices. He is the guy who call you when they have trouble with a corrupt hard drive, your sister who think computers are boring, the guy across the street that has no time to research his buying decision, the pretty girl at the gas station, your young but technologically challenged economics professor at school. Really, not a stereotype as much as the lack of the stereotype that we fit in by being active on t.m.o.

I don't think we're talking down on these people in this thread, we just have to admit that we in here are more than average interested in technology. Average Joe is the rest.

A phone that only sells to people as interested in technology as us would per definition not sell very good.

Roy at IT:

Furthermore, there's a risk that we that can be called tech-heads are divided into Symbian people, Maemo people, Android people, and iPple. So even Roy at IT may not look at the N900 twice because it's just the new Nokia flagship, and he's much more interested in Hero / Leo / 3gs. And on each of the other platforms, these days there are coming out new devices that are much, much cooler than the previous generation. Really. There is a lot to read about on all platforms. And Engadget has article after article every day, about every model, and for us tech heads there is a lot of noise the N900 can drown in.

Volt at t.m.o.:

If I wasn't already a Maemo user, I would most certainly be getting an HTC phone next. Most probably an Android. There is a lot of buzz about the Android, with it's opennessy linuxy coolness. The Maemo platform had an timing advantage but lost it, they really should have came up with the N900 last year instead of the N810 wimax. Now Android has a lot of things working for them. I believe that until you start considering the platform strenghts and weeknesses, the HTC phones are more appealing than the N900 - there are more models to choose from, they're stylish as long as you like black, the high resolutions are there, they were early to implement WiFi, etc. Nokia is doing a lot right these days, but they're a bit late to save the smart phone market. I fear I might not have noticed the N900 amongst the other interesting products, and I probably would not have hold back and waited. The Diamond2, the Touch Pro2, the Hero, already on the market. To see where the N900 kicks these phones arses, you have to look beyond the marketing brochures, even beyond the specs. The sales person may not know. It's hard to see that one platform might have more applications but another is growing faster, yet another have better terms and more potential. You have to know stuff about the operating systems, the platforms.

The percentage who do that, really low. Here at maemo.org, the percentage is probably really high. Amongst our friends, rather high. The world market overall... Really low.

Why, then, would people pick the Maemo phone? Well, good reviews maybe. Price difference, maybe. Recognition of words like "android", "maemo", "windows mobile", makes people feel safe. "Does it have a facebook widget" seems to matter.

On one hand, if facebook widgets matter the most, maybe the Maemo platform doesn't have anything extra to offer mr. and mrs. Joe Average. Maybe the phone isn't special.

On the other hand, if this phone has more potential to grown services and apps that other platform doesn't have, then I think it'd be a shame if the platform drowned in the media flow.

I don't think we here are smarter, more informed, better than the Joe Average that is a incarnation of "wide market appeal". We're just more informed about a tiny slice of technology. My sister would never, ever buy a N900 unless I told her to. My coworkers only know of the N900 because I forcefeed them info when they link me HTC Leo/Hero links. I think the N900 has a better platform. I just fear very few people will find out.

By step 5 out of 5, people had better have noticed. Or there will be no step 6.

Peter... Is it going to work? :d