I think that what others have said about why Maemo still hasn't gotten traction in the market is correct. Maemo has been brewing mostly under the radar. Nokia has been carefully nurturing it without much fanfare, but making sure it grows into a formidable alternative. The N900 is going to bring Maemo to the attention of the masses, but Nokia still doesn't see it ready to take on the world and really start pushing it. That is why it is called the "4th step".

But, I think the more interesting question, and it has been asked in this thread already is what is the strategy for making Maemo take hold and thrive?

Well, first of all, as Mr Ballmer well knows, attracting developers is crucial. Fortunately, Maemo has very attractive qualities to a developer. Nokia needs to nurture this very important aspect of Maemo. I know they are very focused on this and that is good, because it is a high priority. But, there is a lot of work to do there.

Some things that can be done to encourage developers is to ensure that they have the best developer tools and libraries available. (For example, I couldn't believe that the scratchbox is running such an old version of Python, and while having 2.5.2 on the device is nice, a newer version of Python is needed since the current version's code is not backwards compatible.) Ruby should be there, and yes even Dalvik.

The coming Nokia store could be another great way to encourage develoeprs. Pride was mentioned by someone here as a motivator, and I think there is a lot to that. It would be nice to know which applications are the most popular on the market, for example. There should be a way for users to give a rating to each application and provide comments and reviews. Since this applications enrich Nokia's products, Nokia should reward, monetarily, applications that do well in each of the different categories.

Nokia should realize that Symbian is not its future and be willing to put all its force behind Maemo. And that is an important factor, because like it or not, Maemo and Nokia are one. We could well call Maemo Nokia's OS. That is because Nokia doesn't seem interested in licensing Maemo to other manufacturers. And this is understandable since Nokia's business is to sell Nokia devices. So, Maemo is restricted to the devices that Nokia decides to manufacture. However, that doesn't necessarily restrict Maemo's applications to run only on Nokia devices, since they are built with standard and open libraries. But still.

Fortunately, Nokia is a powerhouse that can create top of the line devices like the N900. But, will Nokia be able to out compete the rest of the market by outgunning them in the hardware side for ever? Eventually, the software and social aspects are going to be the differentiators.

Any way, just some thoughts for now.