The VKB is at worse average. That is not the issue. It's not being released in certain areas NOT because of the incompetence of the device (which we have not heard of mind you) but because Elop basically KILLED the thought of long term support with his statements.
So yeah why would the biggest smartphone markets wanna buy a device after Elop said things like
'Meego is experimental'
'Meego isn't ready, it won't be till 2013 so we went WP7'
'n9 is going to be the only meego device'
'we're cutting Meego expenditure DRASTICALLY, and shift most of our resources to make sure wp7 doesn't fail'