EDIT: Started writing this post before the answers to my previous question came in. It seems like the small availability is more serious than I thought. However all my other points are still valid.

I think I know how to present this thing

Firstly I don't believe for a second that FUD Eldar is spreading about 92000 units. Also even if it is true we can't go to nokia and ask for anything quoting this number. So let's assume that the N9 availability will at least match that of the N900 which somewhere here in tmo is quoted to be about a million units. (a quick search shows that a nokia rep said it sold about 100 000 units in the first five weeks)

So, the rationale is this. Nokia will sell for sure all the N9's they make. The Nokia N9 even if it is not the official strategy anymore still has a nokia sticker on it, it is very sexy and we can safely assume that a great percentage (maybe even 70% of the buyers) will not even be aware that this phone runs harmattan, they will think of it as an upgrade to their N8 (even some guys came here and were asking how to install a .sis file on the N900 - with the N9 this trend will be stronger as the name suggests a continuity (N8->N9), form factor is sleeker, and advertising is more consumer friendly ("raw computer power" vs "show yourself")).

Next big chunk of customers (let's say 20%) will be people who know that it runs harmattan, know that the N900 was strongly supported by the community, and believe the corporate blabber about continuing support etc etc. Those people expect that what is true about the N900 will be true about the N9, we have already many people here assuring that the radio and fmtx chip in the N9 will be hacked to working condition by the community.

Then there is the group that just want the latest gadget, or is fed up with every other mobile OS and want to try something new, will research the abilities of the phone to death and they will be ok with what they get out of the box. Whatever remains is happy Nxxx users, tmo members mostly that will get the N9 (if they can) whatever it is, even if it doesn't seem a hell of an upgrade on the N900, just because it's the last of it's kind or they had very nice moments with their Nxxx (me! )

Consolidation:
these are just my estimates feel free to criticize

Points:

• Nokia will probably sell all the N9's so if the buyer is a maemo.org member or not is of no financial concern to nokia.
• The ratio of developers/100users in tmo is for sure the biggest among the 4 groups I described.
• Giving the opportunity to every tmo member and if every and all tmo members buy one it still is only 5% of the billion units.
• The non-developers here are mostly helpful and give support to other /N?[7-9](0|1|7)?0?/ users free of charge

Giving access to community members to the N9 will benefit nokia in the following ways.

• First group (consumers) is going to have somewhere to go to when things get ugly and a helping hand before they have to ring nokia. Less customer service costs for nokia and more satisfied users. Those users will probably buy a nokia WP next time.
• Second group will be dissappointed if there is no strong community around the N9, so bad publicity for Nokia since those guys are the most vocal on the internet.i
• All the groups will benefit from more apps. I am more likely to make an app for the N9 (or port something over) if I have one in my hands arent't I? A user of the first group won't.
• We 're more likely to be satisfied N9 customers than group A (who may moan about lack of apps - especially the ones they already had on their symbian phone) and we sure going to do some viral marketing even if we don't want to. There are about the same number of youtube videos tagged with N900 and N97 (with the N97 having sold millions more). The gsmarena championship win is also not by chance. We also are more likely to keep the N9's alive for more.
• I'm going to be disappointed if I don't get a N9 and will vent it out by going Galaxy Note. The Nokia loyalist will just go SeaRay

I'm sure we can think of more reasons why we should have priority.

I urge a native english speaker to rephrase the above to an open letter to Nokia and let us publish it and create some hype over it.

Thanks for reading.

(I made a lovely typo while typing SeaRay - SeaRat hehe)