"Maybe the unpleasant truth is that MeeGo really was too late and/or not good enough?"

My impression was that nokia want to sit alongside android and Ios as one of the big three mainstream mobile ecosystems, and they didn't believe MeeGo could take them there.

http://jedibeeftrix.wordpress.com/20...-qt-and-meego/

That said, I believe they intend to keep MeeGo as a 'niche' operating system in reserve.