Nice comment tzsm98

Dan, the thing I'm trying to push here is the most probable outcomes, and HP/Palm is at the centre of it.
Within ~10 months (Apr-Jun 11), HP was able to transform the WebOS system, and make adaptations for its devices.
And HP has less experience than Nokia when it comes to creating an operating system, let alone an ecosystem.
However, HP's future with WebOS has come falling down simply because the market was late, HP didn't have enough contracts to pick it off the ground, there was many promising competitors, and public interest was low. The software was, scratch that, is really top-notch, it is the rest of the package which fails to deliver.

The example with HP is just to show that an effective software and promising hardware are not enough. You need the entire package; third-party support, availability, marketing, the works. Consumers are used to brands, which is why Apple is dominant. And Elop is actually right, consumers are also considering the ecosystem these days, not just the device.

Additionally, WP7 is more of a dumbbed-down-smartphone-os than iOS, or WebOS, or Android. And Nokia is the king of feature-phone market share, so the two really go hand-in-hand.

So the question must be asked, did Nokia have what it takes to create a new (MeeGo) operating system by Q2 2011?
-Yes, definitely.
Could it have created an (effective) ecosystem by Q2 2011?
-Definitely not.

The only way Nokia could have created an effective ecosystem, truly is if they beat Microsoft (or at least tied) to the market. And even then MeeGo may not have been enough. If they were the winners of Palm they would have enough effort to scrape up a new ecosystem. They would also have a noticable third-party support, a footing in the North America market and stand against Apple's litigation with ease.