[jacobush]

AFAIK the N900 sold great in Germany without any ads. It would have been the third place of smartphones IMHO, especially considering Android was not totally dominant in the public yet then.

I think it could have been sort of the "Thinkpad" of smartphones, used by professionals and geeks.

[pjmlp]

Did it?

Other than some units on display across Saturn and Media Markt stores, I never actually have met anyone using them.

I was using Symbian Belle at the time and that was a deciding factor just buying an Android handset, as time came for a new device.

[jacobush]

My memory may be rosy - anyway, it's seems it's unclear how well it sold.

Better than Nokia expected, which may not be a high bar though.

https://www.slashgear.com/nokia-n900-has-sold-well-in-excess...

Anyway, Microsoft was not interested in Linux on cell phones.