My question is WHY...

if yall really, REALLY..... REALLY want to know when it is going to ship, there are a couple things you could ACTIVELY do.

1. Social engineering:
get numbers, and call the people in the know... call nokia and try to worm information out of someone, saying you are someone else. Or call the factory, or wherever. This could also be done more deviously, by getting contact info for the factory, and then contacting to factory to try and get them to start shipping.

2. Petition:
This is a community device, Nokia NEEDS developers to help create apps for this device. Nokia should reciprocate, and be open with the community about it. Get enough signatures of people saying they will never buy nokia or help with maemo or related software, something will be done.

But complaining in this thread will definately not influence them in any way. I bet 1000 people leaving the high ups at Nokia messages could do some influencing too.

With so many different dates from different places, and the last REAL word from anyone that SHOULD know, was reported at the n900 official meetups. That word was that it might not be out till AFTER THE HOLIDAYS. Honestly this all seems like stringing people along, tell different places different dates, each a little further out.... strech it all out as much as possible.

hear hear, I agree, if it's supposed to be such an open platform, why are we all in the dark about when it is going to be released? I don't care if it was released in January if they just came out and gave a unambigious release date. Not something like "we expect to release it in January" yada yada which doesn't mean anything. I expect to win a million dollars, doesn't mean it's gonna happen...

`
The answer is BECAUSE PETER

If anyone watched and remembers Centurions...then this is for you:

In the near future,
Nok-kia and their flagship companion Stores,
delay the N900 to laugh at Earth.
Only one force can stop this evil.
A handful of brave men.
In specially created exo-frames,
they can be transported anywhere.
To fuse with incredible stealth-hacking systems.
Beamed down from the Dev-Station Maemo,
becoming Man and Machine, The Maemo Team.
Pete Schneider - Brilliant marketing operations commander.
Jussi Mäkinen - Rugged internet tablet specialist.
Ari Jaaksi - Daring chief operations expert.
Whatever the date,
they are ready.
The M'turions!

took me a few minutes lol, enjoy xD

Well i contacted Nokia last week from there website and the CEO, this is the 1st reply i got -

Dear Lee,


Thank you for contacting Nokia Care. We would like to thank you for your interest in purchasing a N900 unit. With regard to your enquiry We do apologize but as of the moment we havent have the exact date on when the N900 will be released. As of the moment we have limited production of the unit that you may request for reservation you may get in a Nokia Care point or calling the Uk online shop or visit the visit the link below.

http://shop.nokia.co.uk/nokia-uk/default.aspx

So I am confused. Did it ship yet?

My n97 was shipped straight from the factory to there storage facility in holland to my door step in 24 hrs .

I just thought of another option. Instead of trying to social engineer the shipping date, or social engineer the factory to begin shipments, you could try to get one of the pre-production devices they send out to reviewers. Just claim to be associated with a popular but slightly obscure site that does not have an N900. But you should claim to be a marketing person or assistant or something... trying to get an n900 for someone else that does the reviews

If people seem to change to the dark site (Windows Mobile, Android, iPhoo...) this would make Nokia concentrate their work to bring it on the market ASAP.