Oh, and one more thing I forgot:

IIRC it was Anssi Vanjoki who answered the question about the commercial success of the 770/N800 (right after the N810 had been introduced) with "Selling units wasn't the point."

I also recall having read (though I cannot find the link anymore, it was part of a research I did 1 year ago) that in the original business case for the 770, they expected to sell less than 3000 units. Worldwide.

You don't launch a product normally when you plan to sell 3000 units. Unless you want to achieve something else with it than making money in the short term.

If this is the case, though, it would really, really be unwise to officially tell how many/few devices you shipped. You would need to explain the whole strategy behind the business case then... and these strategies don't make good headlines. "Nokias Linux Tablet: Only 3000 sold" does make a good headline, and ruins the Maemo-brand forever.

So what would be the point in publishing such numbers if you don't want to sell huge volumes in the first place? You just cannot gain anything from it... Except telling HTCs and Samsungs of this world how well the market responds to some of your experimental products.

Consider now that for Nokia, the N900 still is an experimental device... I really don't see who would benefit from any official sales figure. - You might argue that software developers do? Because they would know how big the market is? They'll learn from their own sales figures.