Uh... wow, you don't realize how wrong you are here.
Nokia's working on their own devices, sure... but by using open source to do it, they *are* contributing. Nokia employees contribute upstream to so many open source packages - many of the same ones that you're probably using this very second - that it's not even funny... and frankly, what you said is completely insulting.
In short, yes... not only are you wrong, but the sheer magnitude of how wrong you are is incomprehensible. Nokia's giving back to the software they are using just as much as the Pandora guys are... and *way* more. Don't believe me? Go look for @nokia.com addresses in commit messages all over the place.
It's the whole reason why Maemo isn't simply an internal Nokia project.
I think he meant more the other way around.. stating that they develop the Maemo OS, while external people (developers) cannot contribute (much) to the OS project (not talking about apps); his ideal would be that the community provides the lead and major work on the OS, and Nokia contributes to it with fixes, drivers, and hardware.
Am i wrong? Sorry if I am.
And not being involved at all in developing, mines are just conjectures.
Actually, my question: to what degree can external developers contribute to Maemo? (apart from filing bugs in bugzilla and the brainstorm section)
