Give me your definition of "branded" first...
Main firmware images for the Nokia N9 are divided up into "variants" by regions of the world. Except for carrier-branded variants and the 003 (China) firmware, these images are more or less the same. 001 - Europe (1), Latin/South America, South Africa 003 - China 005 - Asia/Pacific (incl. Australia/New Zealand, excl. China) 006 - Middle East 009 - Europe (2) 2xx, 3xx, 4xx - "Country Variant" and carrier-branded images Downgrades of firmware are normally blocked by the phone. Whether something is a "downgrade" is determined by comparing the entire version strings of the old and new firmware versions, which include the variant code, from left to right. As a result, the variant code must be the same or higher unless you also upgrade the firmware version at the same time. For example: PR 1.1 variant 009 to PR 1.1 variant 003: Blocked PR 1.1 variant 003 to PR 1.1 variant 009: Allowed PR 1.1 variant 009 to PR 1.2 variant 001: Allowed PR 1.1.1 variant 006 to PR 1.2 variant 005: Allowed PR 1.2 variant 001 to PR 1.1 variant 001: Blocked