I think even a used n900 is still a good purchase. But yeah, I don't think you'll find any left in stores anywhere any more.

Hmm. Nokia is still a massive corporation, if no longer thriving as it once did. Support, to some extent, should be available for a while. However, given that the leadership in the company has decided to switch to Microsoft operating systems, I don't know just how much effort they will be putting into supporting the MeeGo OS. Certainly, they won't be working hard on new features and functionality.

Personally, I don't see the point in running Android on the N9 or the N900. The world is now awash in little Android devices. If you just want to play games, I figure it's easy enough to get a used Android phone somewhere and make it into a dedicated gaming box.

As to the successor of the N900... I'd have to say no. The N900, like its predecessors, is in spirit something like a tiny laptop that just happens to be able to take phone calls. It has a pretty user interface, but it doesn't force you to use that interface. Just like any general-purpose computer, the N900 allows you to run your own software in (more or less) the manner you yourself choose. Every other smartphone I've ever seen takes the opposite approach: the designers, in their infinite wisdom, know what is best for you and limit your choices to what they want to give you. Your job is just to sit back, be quiet, and watch the pretty icons go past on your screen...

Anyway, the N9 is a step in the direction of the general smartphone world. All the power of Linux is still sitting inside there, but buttoned up a litte more tightly inside of that "swipe" interface. It is prettier than Maemo, and perhaps provides more consistency across the various apps. But that kind of consistency means little to me; I prefer the freedom of the general-purpose computer. I'd probably spend most of my time trying to work around or otherwise defeat the swipe UI than trying to conform to it.

Sorry, got off on a bit of a rant there. In short, the N9 has a lot of the N900 inside it, but it isn't really a true successor.