here is my update based on the conversation I have just had with MPD in the Nokia Flagship store @ Regents St.

First of all, forget about CPW, you will not be able to buy this phone from anyone but Nokia/mpd ON CONTRACT this side of xmas. They might be advertising it, but they won't have it before next year.

I was going down there to cancel my MPD order and re-order in sore with a vodafone contract. While he was willing to do this for me, I was advised that it would not get me the phone any quicker as any stock that came in was reserved for pre-orders, and this is where it gets interesting.
Last Fri, they were expecting in a delivery of 1000 n900's, they got 100!! These units went on clearing some of the backlog from the september pre-orders. Now the guy claims that they are operating a first come first served process, not just for the people who ordered in person, but for the online orders as well?!? The stock coming in from Nokia is going to those who ordered in store and those that ordered online through MPD on a date ordered basis...

Can anyone confirm who picked their phone up last weekend whether they ordered online from MPD or just in store???

He claimed that the delivery date of the 4th is still on, not because he knew the stock would be in, but because Nokia themselves have been widely publicising the 4th as the release date and it would be a PR disaster if they fail to meet that.

His best advice for me was to wait until Thurs night, they would know by then whether the order was in, how many units etc and then make a choice over whether to switch to vodafone or not. His personal reccomendation was to wait it out, as I would not be able to get as good a deal as my t-mobile deal through vodafone.
He (obviously) blamed Nokia, as they were not meeting their shipments and the deliveries that were coming through were 10% of the amount that had actually been ordered

What I can do is pop in there Thurs night and give you guys a heads up on whether they have had a delivery or not and then you can take it from there..