And I do get it: the N900 is confusing to people. Many say it is a phone because it is listed under "phones" in Nokia.com.

Yes, it is listed here.

But so is its predecessor, the N810. Which clearly is even less of a phone, no GSM/3G there.

It is a small niche Nokia plays in (and they don't have a clear place for it in their marketing) that now has big designs for the future. This is confusing and I'm sure overly eager salespeople world around have done their best to confuse this.

When one resets their expectations and perspective to N810 -> N900 jump and the Maemo roadmap's Maemo 5 before consumer Meamo 6 plan, it is clear where the product actually belongs to and what to expect of it.

I am sure there is confusion in the public (especially since many Nokia outsiders are actively comparing N900 with iPhone), and the argument that Nokia made a mistake in introducing a product bound to cause confusion is certainly an arguable one, but I just don't see how the truth behind it all could be confusing.

Clearly the N900's position and intent in the grand scheme of Nokia is not vague, when truly drilling into it, even if its public image might be? Right?