I wonder if your arguments about Maemo vs. Symbian also perhaps apply to Android and the iPhoneOS. I know that Android has a lot of room for growth and development, but I can't help feeling that the whole constraints of the java-layer thing were determined by the smartphone concept and technology ca. 2007.

As pocket computers get cheaper, powerful, and ubiquitous, people are going to want the power and flexibility they've come to expect in desktop computers (including the ability to run and port programs written in a variety of languages). Maemo is well poised to take advantage of the pocket computer model. I wonder whether the tightly controlled, "single language" environments of Android and iPhoneOS and PalmPre will come to seem outdated in five years. Perhaps Maemo is showing us the future high-end, while Android and iPhoneOS are the future mid- to low- range (i.e., what Symbian is today).