got mine in the first batch from NOKIA NYC STORE IN MID NOVEMBER.!!! AND LOVED IT EVER SINCE!
You were probably among the first ones that got N900 production model in a store. We might have shipped other production models that have been preordered before that, but the first ones were most likely in NYC as far as I remember.
Got a pre-production as well, but as stated already, one of the very first to have not even a pre-production, but a prototype, was lcuk.
Yes, the first prototypes for the community were handed to out the Fremantle stars (five of them) that the community selected in a poll in 2009. Among those lucky ones were beside lcuk the developers of eCoach, OSM-to-Go, and Mauku under NDA.
In addition, the Maemo Community Council members got prototype devices ahead of the launch under NDA.