maemo.org - Talk - View Single Post - why doesn't maemo get traction in the market

	w00t	2009-10-23 , 08:55
	Posts: 1,055 \| Thanked: 4,107 times \| Joined on Oct 2009 @ Norway	#2

Originally Posted by ddalex

I'm finding myself surrounded by people who are enthusiast to say the least; but they are not driven by Maemo, they are enthusiast about Android and the Jesus phone, despite a significant share of them being Linux developers. I've been trying to preach Maemo and "computer-on-your hand" concept to them, they are more interested to get SSH and VNC working on HTC Hero than contribuing to Maemo.

If you take a quick look on the web, see how many application spring up for Android, despite being just a year old. Maemo is now about 3 years old, and not getting a fraction of the attention Android does.

So my problems are::
- Why can't we get developers (in the "companies" sense) to get to create applications for Maemo ?
- Why isn't this program every's Linux developers wet dream ?
- Why aren't we projecting an interesting image like Android ? I don't want to be "hip and cool" as the iPhone users, but getting significant innovation under Maemo name is critical.
- Why are we so few ? I estimate the size of this community to about 2000 people, about which only 200 are really active.
- What can we do to ensure that the future is Nokia and not HTC ?

Let's find out why we're still sitting in a darkish corner and what do we need to do to get our heads above anyone else !

One thing which is kind of important to note is that Maemo was previously confined to internet tablets, which, while being a cool device in their own right - had kind of limited penetration.

I'm a good example of this.

I've got (or had, I'm waiting on my N900 now) a phone which did internet access, I have an MP3 player, I have a tablet PC. I don't want yet another gadget which has a single purpose and provides yet more bulk for me to carry and worry about it being stolen.

This is why, for me, and I think for a lot of other people, the N900 and future devices are going to be changing things quite a bit.

I think that with the release of the N900, we'll see an influx of new people, and once more and more regular applications get ported - as well as normal applications being made - the publicity for the Maemo platform will rise quite a bit.

Of course, publicity helps, and that's something that we need to be pushing on more and more.

I do understand the frustration that you're in, but let me share a story:

I experienced this same frustration with a colleague of mine a few months ago. He wanted a cool device/phone. He bought an iPhone because the N900 wasn't out. Now he's really regretting it because of the locked down nature of the phone.

We have something which all of those platforms don't (really) have quite so much (especially with the Android C&D nonsense): an open platform, and open software.

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