Had Nokia refocused their smartphone efforts towards Maemo/Meego back in 2008, they would have had a chance. But they were hopelessly late in 2011.
What killed both Symbian and Meego was all the petty internal turf wars. Divisions inside Nokia spent years fighting over control of a hill that was about to be bulldozed to the ground.
The Symbian people fought particularly hard to keep their preferred status within Nokia. Their plans to rewrite the Symbian UI and reconquer the high-end smartphone market from Apple were completely unrealistic, but upper management didn't understand software and allowed Nokia's Linux-based efforts to be suffocated while enormous resources were poured into Symbian.
What killed both Symbian and Meego was all the petty internal turf wars. Divisions inside Nokia spent years fighting over control of a hill that was about to be bulldozed to the ground.
The Symbian people fought particularly hard to keep their preferred status within Nokia. Their plans to rewrite the Symbian UI and reconquer the high-end smartphone market from Apple were completely unrealistic, but upper management didn't understand software and allowed Nokia's Linux-based efforts to be suffocated while enormous resources were poured into Symbian.