I won't defend Nokia's policy here or will try to just blame it on the user. I really don't agree with how randomly the decision pro/contra warranty is made at all. Maybe my usb port would have been broken too already if I weren't aware of the problem or would treat this port like the good old DC jacks from the 90ies. Regarding the poll it's hard to believe a lot of the luckier N900 user went there to read an article about Usb Port problems. From what I've seen at work it's really not the most common problem(although one of the worst possible I admit)

Unfortunately it is true. And there are strict rules too so the Service Center can't just go to eg Amazon and use these for the so called swap process.

It works like this: Nokia has partnerships with numerous Service Centers in many countries. For my region they picked a certain Partner(B) and authorizied them to send swap units to the rest if they need any. These distributors get the units from Nokia.

So here we have a normal Service Center(A), not being able or authorized to repair a phone(cheap phones, complicated repairs,..). They just send a swap device to the customer and get a service fee from Nokia. Now the old faulty phone will be sent to a special and well equipped Service Center(C) which is able to perform all kinds of repairs and enjoys Nokia's full trust and support. They refurbish the old phone if possible. The phone will then be sent back to the first Service Center(A) so they can use it just like a brand new swap unit

Sometimes Service Center(C) sends many phones to the Distributor(B). So it's hard to tell wether a swap device is really new or "just" refurbished.

Now what happend with the N900 in general: the Distributor(B) has no new ones left and can't order them from Nokia anymore because Nokia decided to not produce the N900 anymore(I've never seen this with such a "young" device, Nokia clearly doesn't care about the N900 anymore). So all that's left is what the Service Center(A) got on stock or what the Special Service Center(C) is refurbishing atm.

Nokia decided to use N8(2nd choice) or E7(1st choice) for N900 swaps. BUT depending on your country and laws you could just refuse the N8/E7 and get your money back instead. Usually Nokia(and their Service Centers) will try everything possible to avoid this though.

Hopefully my post isn't too hard to read, I'm clearly not used to write so much in English anymore.