This is slightly unfair as Android devices are all running the same OS. Ofcourse Symbian handsets and Maemo handsets cannot run the same compiled and packaged code. Add to that there are hardware differences, no standard DRM on the N900, and increased costs to do with device procurement and testing compared to perceived revenue gain may explain the lack of cross porting.

I don't think it can either until the devices themselves become more standardised. But you mention Java - to give one example with similar problems with J2ME - different manufacturers use different keycodes which, at the beginning, meant that the same program needed to be recompiled for each handset manufacturer you wanted to distibute your app to. Not to mention you had MIDP1.0, then MIDP 2.0.. coding one game you could use the gamecanvas class, the other you'd need to write it from scratch. Wasn't a huge job but required skills and knowlege. Different screen sizes.. different max jar file sizes.. capsule 3d or no capsule 3d.. sound capabilities etc etc. Indeed there were companies created specifically for the porting and testing of J2ME applications. With iphone there's one device (although different generations) and one manufacturer, they dont have this problem. Google do reccommend a general standardized group of specs for Android devices. Nokia (and Symbian manufacturers in general) have been behind the curve somewhat, imo, on the need for standardization even within the same company.

To get back to the thread topic, I much prefer developing in Java and I wish there was an option to do so with Qt. An official option I mean, built into and distributed with the offical SDK. IMO a large part of the rapid application catalogue development for Android is down to using Java.