It's easier to adapt to another keyboard layout than it is to change your accent. Not to mention that you can remap it in software (or at least you would be able to on rooted Android...) and that most latin layouts aren't that different from US QWERTY, at least compared to the difference in accents.

It can be annoying when typing in a Cyrillic-based language (and presumably other alphabets), especially when it's not your native language. It's also rather annoying for kids who are learning to type.

Just saying, as an ex-n900 user, that niche market is much smaller than we think. I wouldn't go back to a n900 equivalent today. Typing accents in French or non-latin characters was pretty annoying.

Did they not produce regional variations? I must admit a friend of mine who's a lawyer in Russia had an old curve with a QWERTY keyboard, but I put that down to the fact that for security reasons the law firm gave everyone French blackberrys that were roaming in Russia rather than Russian provided phones.