It really is not nonsense. In the American model of mobile phone usage, most people do not have more than one device used on the same plan, hell, on the largest US carrier, Verizon, you cannot use two different devices on the same plan without calling to customer service which entails a nice long hold time and then a nice long conversation to explain to the 'service' representative that yes, you actually own your devices and can switch between them. Verizon is also CDMA and does not use sim cards except for a few models.

Given above, in addition to the carrier subsidy model which often includes two year contracts, in addition to the preference of americans for iphones, it does seem the American market is saturated and of no real benefit to Nokia currently.

When verizon switches to LTE(which will operate more like GSM folks are accustomed to) and the carrier subsidy/contract model is defeated in the US, then Nokia may have a chance here.

In my opinion, Nokia is using a a type of cross-plot of carrier power(ie where people are more likely or not to buy or even be able to buy unlocked sim free devices) on one axis and market potential on another axis in deciding where to market and release such a device as the n9.

Not really true, Jobs has always dealt with carriers preferentially, first giving ATT exclusivity not selling any unlocked devices and then also creating a cdma version which is virtually always locked by the cellular technology it uses(will only work on verizon)

Anyway, I too wish that it would be easier for me to get an n9 here in the States, but I understand that it makes total business sense for Nokia to not worry setting up a channel here for the few sales they will receive.