I'm seeing Maemo's oft-touted 'features' here as long term enabler than as (ready) features.

Open source, open platform, open distribution.. those are key concepts that can potentially bring good stuffs (tm) to the platform. But it's up to the developer community to make use of them well, to bring what the mass wants.

Even something as basic and obvious as multitasking needs good content (apps) to make them shine.