beg borrow or steal a developer phone.

Disappointing but somehow not surprising.

Maybe LG will make what we're looking for. Sigh.

I came to the N900 totally for the HW kbd, then discovered the beauty of the OS. I didn't have to compromise at all with the n900. Now I feel totally split!

They ain't gonna make what I am looking for... the N9 developer phone is what I was waiting for... Nice chassis, QWERTY, nice cam... that's the selling point for me personally: QWERTY with the the good camera module... I don't care about the CPU...

What the ****?
Everyone knows for most of NIT history, the users of the NITs were experienced/power users. WHY do this, Nokia? We love our TI chips, NOS and keyboard.

Just hit print on that device copying machine.

Failing that, any devs here want to sell a dev device? They'd immediately sell out for $$$ on TMO.

There is a rumor that Apple preparing iPhones 5 with hwkb, or even it will make two devices, one with and one without hwkb.
According to research from 2009 most iPhone users dream of a hwkb, so Nokia will probably misjudged consumers trends again.

because nokia actually wanted to make some real money off their maemo/meego investment.

let me say something about hw kb or not...

how many people hear wants a hw kb... lets say 99%... how many people are here in this forum? lets say 1000. so, the people who wants a hwkb on this forum are round about 990. we, the people here, are not the mass, and nokia can not make money only with us.

so, what did they do. Long time ago they developed two devices, the first with hwkb, a second (leikku) without the hwkb. Because they already produced some hwkb-devices, they will sell it now with the same old specs, but because the specs are old they couldnt deliver it to the enduser nowdays (because thanks to android we (the mass) know that we need a dc to have a powerfull device, regardless if we need it or not; btw. android need at least a dc to run fine, a good os like meego should do well with a good single core either). So what can they do with the already produced devices? they give it to the developers to make some nice apps aso... And because they want to make money, they need something that the mass could want... and the mass doesnt want a hwkb, they want a slim and light device with a nice ui (and a few things more).
For all of you who wants a device with a keyboard, i am sure there will be a way to get this device (that with the old specs). But stop crying just because nokia wants to make money and to raise their marketshare.

AND
If everything Koajwujwer123 and zehjotkah said will come true, then you wont need the hwkb. And if you say that you cant write on an swkb, please dont compare it to the swkb of maemo or android, both are not really good. imho the best swkb (at the moment) has ios, it is really nice to typ without any mistakes. Some one mentioned before that he has started typing via swype. Remember that the world record for writing a sms has been made with swype.

The only reason (imho) to prefer a hwkb instead of a (really good) swkb would be for coding, but remember, coding is beeing done by developers to develope apps. Most of the users of a smartphone use it to write words, and i can swype more words then you can write with the hwkb of the n900.

P.S.
Remember where you are. This is a forum for an os, not for a device!
I AM SO HAPPY that we will get a powerfull phone with a more powerfull os within this year. All of you should too. It will be great and we all will be very happy when holding it in our hands as our new baby... I will name her... Jessie

I would be quite happy to buy iPhone5 (existing Mac OS X user). I have been waiting for Qt-based Ovi Suites etc. many years as promised by Nokia. However, although there has been rumous with qwerty iPhone quite long time actual hardware is still missing. Don't know if its coming at all.

iPhone5 with keyboard would be quite ok. Of course I would miss software/OS updates via console etc. offered by Maemo5/6 and Meego

HOWEVER: Still I hope that I somehow can get that QWERTY-Maemo6-device which will be oriented to developers not consumers that I am. It's my highest hope and my target.

Heh indeed.
People can whine as much as they want but the fact is kb devices just don't sell anywhere near the amount of candybars. Nokia has been the only one to make it's flagships with qwerty and there's a reason why Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG etc don't do it. Seems like Nokia has come to the realisation of it too.

Personally very happy about the direction if all is true. Let the devs have the kb.