The issues were: (from the gravepine)

Old Symbian team kept beating the Symbian drum and heading towards the cliff

At the same time, Linux team developing Maemo, viewed by the rest of the company as "the linux kids and their toys"

Linux team trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of several Linux services (and since most of them are not focused on mobile, and some are just crap but it's the only solution) it takes a lot of time

Not to mention "ok, let's merge with Intel and rewrite a crapload of stuff" then "ok, let's buy Qt and rewrite a boatload of stuff with Qt" (not sure how those are ordered, still)

Meanwhile Android just built the bare minimum, discarding lots of Linux infrastructure and came ahead

So when Stephen Elop got there, sorry, boat had already sank