Notices

That youtube video looks promising...

The quoting of "as shown" wasn't for laughs and leisure.

Here are some reasons why there is little commercial development for the N900 and we are largely just getting apps from the "Linux Arts & Crafts Movement"

-Nokia hasn't published any numbers as to how many n900's have been sold, so developers have no idea how big a pool of potential purchasers there are. If you are coding for your dinner, this is important. Apple & Android offer a huge number of potential purchasers in comparison. Hell, Palm probably offers a huge number of potential purchasers by comparison.

-The Ovi store experience is extremely rough when compared with the app store experiences for Iphone & Android platforms.

-The perception is that Nokia largely abandoned the Maemo 5 platform almost as soon as it launched it. Why bother coding for a relatively small, abandoned user-base who will probably have moved on to something else by the time you are ready for release. Remember, coding substantive applications for commercial sale takes investment in time & money and is often about hitting a moving target at just the right time in the product release cycle.

-Nokia's corporate structure and executive leadership is in flux & Nokia has neither exhibited or made huge commitments to Maemo/Meego in the past. Even if they publicly threw their entire weight behind Maemo/Meego now, who knows what the next batch of execs will decide. None of this is attractive to a developer.

Some of this may change once PR 1.2 is out and developers get a hypothetical bridge to Meego with the next QT.

Speaking as a potential (and put-off) app developer, I'd
have to say most strongly that Nokia has hamstrung any
app development.

The change from Maemo to MeeGo is a major problem,
though I can understand that big moves like that can't
always be controlled and, for Nokia in the long run, it's
a good thing.

The app store launch was ridiculously badly handled.
Both the store interface being broken and the content.
Why, oh why, didn't Nokia get a few devs onboard
before the store went live to pre-populate the store
with ~10 apps at launch. Oh and 50 euros to
register and same old 30% rake. Come on! Nokia
is a big handset player but is a small app store player
and is now going backwards.

Someone at Nokia needs to come out with an official
announcement that unambiguously addresses Nokia's
app support.

e.g. competition for best apps, waiver of reg fee,
lowering of 30% margin, clear statement of support
for Maemo -> MeeGo migration.

To date, Nokia's support of the app store concept has been
horribly flawed, secretive and ambiguous.
David

For the record, that’s what they did to the letter.

They are not even close to the point of this becoming an issue which is very simple. It. Does. Not. Work. Until they fix that, it does not matter if the registration fee is 1 or 1000 euros.

We're running a friendly app competition over the next month, if you'd like to contribute or interested in learning more about creating apps then please get involved

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=53112

Im learning too, and I understand it can be a frustrating experience for the beginner. Hopefully the competition will help people take the plunge in app development, get some ideas flowing, find support, and at the end of it maybe a few more applications for us all to enjoy

What exactly does not work?

I registered as a publisher in a matter of minutes.
The process of registering new app and uploading it is very easy and straighforward. The store technical support is responsive and reacts fast.
The testing process takes time, but QA team acts as advertised - within 6-8 work days.

Please share the source of your information, because my experience with publisher interface of Ovi Store is very different to "It. Does. Not. Work.".

Happened to me. I reported bugs via Maemo Bugzilla. Problems were fixed right away.

Be more active people. Acting instead of complaining.

People pay in store by credit card.
Publisher gets money transfers to the designated bank account once a month.

What's improper about this?

Oh, so you have commercial Maemo content in the Ovi store that has went through QA and is publicly available to end-user devices today ? Could you share which such package(s) are you the author of ?