It's stupid to care about the amount of apps. N900 has ~700 properly tested (extras) apps and still so far has been more than enough for me.

You'd be equally delusional if you don't see the trend started 4 years ago for this type of consumer to become the majority and how this type of consumer has a level of expectation that some ecosystem (their term, not mine) has to be in place.

Remember when the original iPhone came out and there was no iTunes Music Store for it? Then a couple of years later, they were celebrating their one-billionth download?

All of a sudden, download counts became important. Even TMO has participated in that. As has Ovi, and the other app stores.

So with the convergence of your phone being your music player, how you consume news, the Internet, videos and the more powerful they become, you'd be quite delusional to not see a trend where if you deliver some gadget without the ability to connect to something that gives the consumer that kind of content, you're missing out on sales opportunities like no other.

Will it continue? Who knows? But to deliver a phone in 2011 without a content infrastructure in place is just like delivering a phone in 2007 without Copy/Paste or MMS and no iTunes (iOS). Or 2009 without MMS and no real Ovi support (Maemo 5). Or 2010 without Copy/Paste (WP7) and no international Zune support.

It's all stupid. Savvy folks want a device they can put whatever on and can control. By the numbers, we're a minority now. The rest of the folks want something that plugs into their computer, grabs/syncs their crap, they walk away happy hitting only one button.

Put it to you this way. N900 sold less than the crappiest variant of the Galaxy S series.

There are many reasons why the N900 didn't sell as well as phone_name[1], ovi support isn't a major one.
Marketing is far more important than specs/support/ecosystem. You're not selling sewage pumps here.

Then what were the reasons?

Was it even marketed at all, in mass media ?
But why would you market it, it is so consumer unfriendly with its geeky way of going about things that you will drive your customers crazy.

The UI should be dumbed down. I love desktops and widgets but they complicate things. Four desktops out of the box !? with a small phone shortcut hiding on one of them ? Not made for public consumption.

The N9 has it the right way. Very nice work. Simple.

Weren't you asking for a halt in the hyperbole?

That's a cool name for a game, "halt in the hyperbole"

dont expect any company to ever release a fully FOSS compliant handset for the masses. BUT Nokia N9 is more open than Android/WebOS seems to be and is marketed for normal consumers with good hw.for an optimized OS. I say it still has a chance to sucess even if Elop may dissagree.....

So you think the sales (or lack thereof) was due to marketing only? Marketing in what areas/markets?

You should try my Puzzle Master game, you'd like it!