Hmmm... I have been using the N9 for the past 3 months and with PR1.1 I find it very usable more so than most Android phones I have used in the past! I also have had friends who are android users comment on how responsive the OS is. I also have no problem with gmail or hotmail reading and deleting messages from both on a daily basis on my N9...

I will readily agree that is lacking a bit of polish BUT remember it took Android until (really) 2.2 to be decent (1.5/1.6 to have a virtual keyboard which is nowhere near as good as the N9's) and even at that the way to make it perform is throw more and more hardware at it - I tried a SE Xperia X10 a while back and even with custom ROMs it was slow as molasses. It took the iPhone several versions to get apps and copy and paste etc and apple is still adding core to it, heck notifications only became servicable in iOS 5... These things take time, time selop was not prepared to wait for so its now a dead platform - which is very unfortunate...

The N9 is a great device, the deciding factors really are:
1) Do you require XYZ application for daily use of you device?
If Yes then the N9 is likely not for you as while some of the apps are good they are limited...

2) Does it bother you to sink ~$500+ into a dead operating system?
If Yes then go get a Google Nexus, iPhone or WP7 device as they will continually get updates - however get a non-google android device and good luck with updates. Yes the N9 is going to get some updates from Nokia PR1.2 & PR1.3 are known and are on their way, but how long this support will last is unknown

3) Do you like being unique (silly but)?
If you buy an N9 you are likely joining a very limited number of people who also use this device, sort of an "elite" group I guess...

4) Did you own an N900 and did you enjoy it?
I am not a developer but I enjoyed my time with the N900, so much so that I still have it and cannot decide whether I want to part with it or not...

5) Do you like to Multi-Task?
If Yes then the N9 has one of the best, smoothest, slickest implementation of multi-tasking implemented on any device out there right now by a very large Margin!

It is an awesome device which I am hoping is only going to get better with the upcoming releases of PR1.2, PR1.3 and whatever else Nokia may have in store for us...

Yes I am very happy with my N9...