So London flagship store not getting it until next week now? Wonder what could've prompted them to post that twitter/facebook update then pull it?

That sucks..

Sure BUT Android are attempting something very difficult - they're trying to define a device independent platform that developers can target. The devices are all made and implemented by third parties which means an every growing diversity between devices running "Android". This is not the first time it's been attempted and every single time it's either failed (Windows mobile) or led to quite a lot of fragmentation (Symbian, Java). Android is still in the "You just write apps for Android and don't worry about the device" stage in its lifecycle and is only now moving into the stage where it runs on lots of devices from lots of different manufacturers - that means "growing pains" and I'd rather not be around for it.

Maemo is different. Yes it's a platform which will run on different devices but the focus is different. You develop for the N900 running Maemo and you'll develop for the NXYZ running Maemo but there's no suggestion you compile a Maemo application and have it work on both. Maemo and the QT application layer will make it easy to move applications around but you'll still have to iron out differences - so will Android but right now Android pretends you won't.

Maemo is also at least trying to leverage knowledge and skills from other areas - if you know Linux development you'll be comfortable with it. You also get access to at least some of the existing Linux applications.

So for me the N900 does the most of what I want "out of the box" and has the best potential going forward. The main risk is with regard to just how many mistakes Nokia will make

Maybe they ship the pre-orders now and push the releases in the stores to next week so it makes sence to preorder at all?

Haha, that would be a very considerate thing of Nokia to do...key word "considerate"

We can only hope!

Yep, I went in at lunch - they said tomorrow or the next day. Now I know why they removed that tweet - I bet it will be in Friday now!

Apparently they have an exclusive on it until January (you can get Voda/Tmobile contracts instore).

Doesn't help if you pre-ordered the phone in the store.. This worked better with the N97.. they had that early.. Maybe they're just telling people they won't have them tomorrow because they won't have enough for all the pre-orders and/or they won't have any spare for walk-in-off-the-street sales..

I pre-ordered mine ages ago.. I only live round the corner, but work about 70 miles out of london.. grrr

Just spoke to Nokia Store, Regent's Street. The man on the phone (who claimed to be called 'Dan'), said "beginning of next week".

But that may - of course - be the beginning of next week for those who hadn't pre-ordered with them.

By intentionally introducing a long artificial delay.

They pick a date several weeks after shipping that every store is likely to have recieved stock and be ready. Stores receive stock in the meantime but are forbidden to sell it.

They don't tell consumers when they've shipped it and many retailers could have physically sold the device days, if not weeks, before the 'launch' date. .. if it weren't for the manufacturer forcing them to not give their customers what they want.

http://www.nokia.com/press/press-rel...newsid=1355897

The Nokia N900 is now available to US consumers