Not sure how not ready, not shipping on devices, no app support makes it "key to success". With that argument sticking to System 40 and System 60 would have made more sense.
Key to success since it allowed Nokia developing modern and versatile system. Not sure what you meant by no support and not shipping. It was cancelled, obviously. What kind of support do you expect from a cancelled system? Elop cut off that road for Nokia, and their independence was doomed ever since. It was probably the plan all along.
It's good that we have Jolla folks now, who continue Meego heritage. But now they will be increasingly threatened by Microsoft trolling.
Meego wasn't ready to ship, Nokia needed a different OS and Microsoft needed devices. Not ideal for either case, but I don't think a Nokia based on Meego with out the infusion of cash that came in from MSFT would have gone anywhere.
Everything one hears about Windows Phone is the "lack of apps". I suspect a system based on Meego would have been a bigger challenge for Nokia than the cash and backing that came from MSFT.
>Meego wasn't ready to ship, Nokia needed a different OS
Nokia had a transition from Maemo to Meego in Harmattan. Harmattan was not only ready to ship, it was shipped! While it was used, Meego could get ready to ship. But Nokia de-facto cancelled it as soon as it came out, since Elop was already in control. Nokia did not need a different OS. MS needed Nokia to say they "need" a different OS. Obviously MS owned one. But Nokia wasn't Microsoft back then. It is now, and MS probably planned that all along.
I feel like the N900 was very close to what they needed. Take that, give it "minor" features like support for portrait mode (!), give it some modern hardware with a capacitive touch screen, and I think they would have really had something.
I didn't like the UI refresh in the N9 as much. It felt like they took a few steps back.
It did seem like Maemo/Meego was mismanaged, which is sad because it did have potential. I have no idea what went on at Nokia, but my guess would have to be that they never fully committed to it; it was just somebody's side-project, and all the talk that it would be their next-gen primary platform was just lip service. As if nobody expected it would ever ship "for real".
