Most people aren't willing to sacrifice half their screen real estate 100% of the time, or deal with a significantly thicker phone, just to get a physical keyboard. The market for that is very small.

But destroyed the interest of many others ;)

Keyboard phones are a great thing, but not as the sole option for a company. As a second current model, sure.

eh, I was a Smartphone ‘it's gotta have a keyboard!’ hold-out too, but I've long-since embraced the Swype or whatever it's called, style of input. It's fine enough for 90% of my engagement with the internet via a phone. Anything more in depth I'm on a computer with a physical keyboard anyway.

But yes, the N900 was pre-slidey-smartphone peak brilliance.