As I understand it, the problem in this case is to set up a desktop shortcut for alpine that will not interfere with a desktop shortcut for xterm (and vice versa). So far as I can tell, if there is an open osso-xterm window, there is no way from the desktop to open a new osso-xterm window; all such attempts will be redirected to the already running window. Thus, if you have an xterm running alpine, and you want to open a new xterm window, you cannot do so from the desktop. The behavior of maemo-launcher makes this impossible.
[...] I have alpine open that way and then I click on my desktop shortcut for xterm then maemo just focuses the existing xterm/alpine window, instead of opening a new instance of osso-xterm. [...]