I was speaking in global terms. It has been announced that key areas other than just the US will be left out.

A very big if at this point. Even bigger if for any follow-up units.
Elop has given me no reason to believe anything he says.

I did. Android got it's start in the US. The iPhone, iPad. We'll buy good, innovative products. Even be willing early adopters. Thing is, in the US promotion and advertising is very important. Microsoft will make Nokia understand that. M$ will spend whatever it takes to make WP7 and by extension Nokia a force in the mobile market in the US and the world.

I see the release of the N9 (and the discontinuation of Sybian and seeming lack of interest in Qt) as Nokia's way of stepping completely away from MeeGo and open source projects altogether. But to do it as quietly as possible, with the least protest or backlash both externally the media and internally, within the company. With minimal promotion in the media to draw attention or help it succeed. The N9 will be their excuse - "Don't blame us - we tried MeeGo with the N9! There was no interest!"

Even if the N9/MeeGo kinda backfires on Elop and is hailed as truly amazing, generates monster buzz and sales in spite of everything, Nokia will still step away from MeeGo because then it becomes a legitimate threat to their WP7 strategy.

Either way MeeGo loses.

I DO see one possible positive scenario. A good thing is that with 1G+ dual-cores, 1G+ ram, better GPUs, etc. handset and tablet hardware is now catching up to the requirements of what's needed to really make MeeGo shine. Now suppose the N9/MeeGo is sensational, a revolution in mobile OS. So good that despite the best efforts of Elop/Ballmer/Nokia/M$ to quietly bury it, it gets monster buzz, reaches cult status, etc. So good that Samsung and/or HTC - other major manufacturers - pick it up and release MeeGo hardware. So good it makes WP7 a joke on someone's screensaver.

We can dream can't we?