what many people in the US really want is a fast stable simple browser based experience. in house we are in process of dumping our primary Windows based applications (Word, Excel...) in favor of Google offering. And we are not alone in this. Who really wants a hard drive full of applications they use only once in a while... if we can get it from Google why not do that. they will be around long after Microsoft is a just bad memory...
The hobbyist market here is pretty pathetic, honestly. People want their computers to DO something, not be a platform for development and learning. I think that the US market will need complete solutions. 100 apps. If it can't do (nearly) all of what people are using XP or Vista for, they won't want it.
Michael