Could you elaborate on that please?

N900 is a "failed product":
- It has a nice form factor, keyboard (very useful to me), nice screen, gps, fm radio etc. The phone is built to last, with mine surviving a very hard knock.
- It has the ability to run tons of software (including access to Debian software) without any kind of jailbreaking. And with real multitasking (ask iPhone developers how they feel about the lack of multitasking on the iPhone).
- It respects my freedom (not forcing me to use Apple or Google apps). Almost every aspect of the phone can be modified according to the wishes of the user.
- It helps me with everything related to my job and my academic tasks (from connecting to servers with ssh, to my company's vpn, to testing php/java/etc. apps directly on the phone, to having access to my code with svn/git etc. for quick corrections. I have even used LaTeX and openoffice for short edits)
- It has USB host mode capability (just imagine the possibilities when combined with a cheap portable usb keyboard and a mouse - or connected to printers, usb sticks etc.)
- It is supported by an active community with many intelligent users and able programmers

Of course I could go on, but what's the point?
With a little research on Apple (and its history), on the status of mobile telephones in USA when the iPhone was released, and on Google, one can reach interesting conclusions...