Nokia will not risk confusing their targetted WP handset markets.

The media tends to look at worldwide figures and statistics, but consideration should be given to country by country stats too.

Quite obviously, Nokia/MS are receiving market-based research that suggests opportunities will present themselves in the UK and Germany, where they may not have at the time of the original N9 announcement.

Allowing 3rd party vendors to sell the N9 in these countries, leaves all the admin and logistics out of their hands, as well as the advertising, which ultimately will decide the success of the handset.
Do you think nokia is going to invest heavily in pushing a handset, when it's OS is so dramatically different to it's preferred smartphone OS?

The N9 is as much a proof of concept as it is a proof of IP (and ensuing patent enforcement). It will guarantee Nokia has leverage against anyone who tries to develop and market a UI/UX that is similar and has managed to keep a whole host of devs on side for just long enough to continue supporting Nokia QT application development, pending the move to WP.

Increasingly, Nokia's relying on income through other revenue streams like patent and IP enforcement through licensing deals.

Hardware development has always been their strong point, as has been proven in recent years by their inability to deliver a clear and focused strategy wrt OS and UX products.

ultimately, it may be easier for the board to look at guaranteed income through licensing of patents, than it is to try and win a race that they are already losing.

the withdrawal of the N9 from an increasing number of european markets, may have more to do with MS than anything else.