Because Maemo 4.x is not user-friendly enough and is not a 'smartphone' OS whereas Maemo 5.0 has not shipped on Nokia N900 yet. Once a product is out in the wild the traction will start.

Rome wasn't build in one day. When Android was still being designed it didn't gather that much traction either. If you look at it from this point of view, and see the media coverage N900/Maemo 5 already received, I'd say things are rather looking good.

Especially when Nokia fixes issues reported by community. I assume here the fixes concern important issues. The initial out of the box experience is very important. Especially with a new product which is 'very different'. For example, iPhone 3G coverage was initially bad, and N97 camera problems also existed

Yes I should have made a priority.

Most important: Get the bored symbians.
important. Try to appeal to the dissappointed Androidees/IPhonees.
Third: Try to get the ones that cannot afford an Iphone or Android, by a cheaper meamo device. Nokia might be in the uncomfortably position to regain marketshares by the price!

Id hope to see it like iron and carbon, if we mix them well then we will have steel.

Maemo could probably run on cheaper hardware than Android, but they'd have to remove the new task switcher. I don't think that's going to happen.

Which is why Nokia has Qt and Symbian.

What I would *really* love is a timed release architecture where you can pay for binary games with DRM, but Nokia is given the source and can release them under the GPL after something like two or three years.

With any luck, it would provide enough incentive for publishers without being unethical towards the users.


Edit: even in this case, though, the DRM may not prevent me from doing ANYTHING else on the system or it would be unacceptable. We all know it's going to be cracked anyway, so it doesn't need to be perfect.

Part of the problem is that as recently as August Nokia was still saying that Symbian was the OS that would kill the iPhone (see below for one example). Maemo, up until the N900 announcement, was seen as a minor niche market and that perception does not seem to have changed much.

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/commun...?scid=rss_z_nw

For a commercial developer, the question is how many people could buy your product and, at the moment, that number is in the millions for the iPhone and in the hundreds for the N900. If it is a roaring success, this equation will change but, for now, most seem to be waiting to see what happens.

For an individual developer, often the first question is "how will this software help me accomplish a task that I want to do?" Again, the fact that developers can buy an iPhone or Android phone to run their software influences many decisions.

Right now, today, if you are developing for a Nokia OS, Symbian is a far more attractive market. If you are developing for a Linux based OS the answer would be Android. If you are developing for a market leader it would be the iPhone.

If the N900 ships a million units, then developers will be drawn in. If it is a flop in the marketplace, all the people who will develop for it may already be reading this thread.

Hold it right there. This is what I was talking about. You view applications like products like you potentially did with Symbian and the iPhone. Well, for better or worse, things don't work that way in Fremantle (yet).

Right now, today, you're best off learning Qt and thus uniting Maemo and Symbian codebases. And for all intents and purposes, Android is not Linux.

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.

Actually UCSB has began to use Maemo to teach mobile programming (unlike most other schools use iPhone), which is encouraging.

Welcome to Maemo !