Yes, those 'specialized' apps make up a certain % of their apps library; but I don't think there's restriction against such design on other platforms. Including Maemo.

Moreover, I think widget-like apps have their place in a mobile platform due to a few reasons:

- technical limitation (screen estate, ui elements, processing power, bandwidth, etc)
- mobile usage (people using it not while sitting down with a full keyboard and lots of time)

I wouldn't be surprised if a certain elements we see in iPhone's ecosystem that are shunned at this point are emulated in some ways in Ovi/Maemo's future. It won't be the first time either.