Well, the point of the OP it seems to me is that a selling point beats an abstraction. Like, you can talk about openness all day long, but not many people (besides us) are going to buy a phone for openness. Multitasking maybe, but a really good browser, now you're talking about something specific that someone can understand and use, and a huge screen, that is something you can actually touch and appreciate.

The moral is that the great masses aren't moved by ideologies so much as by things they need and understand. Hopefully, the N900 can compete on that basis.