I figured something like this happened. The reality of product development is that users never do what you expect.

I think the problem that's developing here (people getting frustrated, endlessly checking with support staff in retailers) is happening because of a lack information and a lack of an obvious source of information. I've owned several Nokia phones and I've always had a problem actually buying one on release - typically the announcement is made and the device becomes available seemingly randomly in different markets.

One of the reasons people are really interested in the N900/Maemo is the openness of the platform and I think this gives a hint that people want more and more information about what's going on. That has to feed through into the marketing and logistics as well.

When delays happen there's always a risk that the buzz already created around the product will start to turn sour and the product launch will be a failure when it does happen. I think people would understand delays happen if they just knew about them and why - instead people focus on retailer due dates which are of course very inaccurate and arbitrary. Then they get angry when the retailer date changes suddenly.

Something like a twitter feed would be great - just something to say you're pushing out development a couple of weeks to respond to user feedback.