So I was on my way out the door today, and out of the corner of my eye was some "tech expert" guy on the Today show doing a comparison of all the new/newish smartphones out there (Droid, Palm Pre Plus, Nexus One, etc).

I said to my wife that this guy probably wouldn't even mention the N900 because it is so under the radar. But lo and behold, the N900 is the next device he talks about--he mentions the "incredible browser" and how he has the "Today Show" twitter feed going. And then he goes on to talk about the subsidization business model in the US and how Nokia is trying to offer an alternative to that model--that the N900 will be more expensive, but you can choose your carrier.

All in all, not very informative (these talk show comparisons never are), but he said nothing negative about the n900. And, it is good to get general public exposure--to take me as an example, I never heard of the n800 until I saw a 30 second segment on it on HGTV (of all places), that got me interested enough to buy it. I've been on the platform ever since.

This is the one big thing the N900 needs more of - Exposure.

I'm not sure if I agree with the alternate sales model. Yeah, not being on contract is a good thing. Though I understand contracts in the US are not as bad as they are here. But here's my issue.

I spend $600 for an unsubsidized phone and it works with exactly one carrier's network. (T-Mobile in the US).

There is still no carrier that supports data (EDGE is useless) where I am though it should be coming soon. Once that happens, I will have exactly one choice.

Works with all GSM Carriers, gets 3G with T-Mobile only ATM.

cross carrier is probably coming. i just bought netbook that has embedded chip for sprint verizon or at&t. it is from qualcomm, but nokia has recently said they will be using some qualcomm chips soon.

this and all carriers transitioning to lte(except sprint i think)

These things can sometimes have real difference. While of course here we are talking about home of iphone and $500 phone in land of subsidized phones.
Example when i was looking for active speakers for my PC i happened to see these one Yamaha active speakers that where talked in different finnish HiFi forums time after time and seemed to sell like hotcakes in here. I googled them and first link was review to big tech magazine in Finland that had given really positive review about them, 2 years ago.
I struggled to find any shop in Europe selling them while every other different store in here had them and going strong.

just watched it on today show site, the segment is called 'Are smartphones worth it'

Passing mention of n900 at the very end, but at leat the dude brought it on there and seems to get it.