That's the problem. Momentum and more importantly - momentum in the big ass company notorious for it's bureaucracy, red tape and cultural[0] policy of doing nothing above the needed yet jealously protecting own domain from anyone.
> Everyone could see it
You are forgetting what if Nokia pivoted to Android in Feb 2011, than the first usable, mass produced yet first one for the company unit (ie: with all bugs, errors a first thing in the line you can encounter) would be at Q4 2012 at the very, very best. More sane estimate (considering their total unfamiliarity with the platform and, again, cultural nuances) would say somewhere in Q1-Q2 2013. There it would then compete with the already established market of Android (Moto RAZR would be 1y+ old) and iPhone 5.
Even if they somehow managed to do it in less than a year (like a fairy godmother came and magically did everything for them, including production and shipping) then they would needed to compete with iPhone 4S, which as we know was extremely popular and people held them for years.
No fucking way they could do anything to stay afloat. That is why I say what would be bankrupt by 2013. You may don't like Elop and his actions as much as you want, but there is zero chances they could do anything themselves.
Oh, one more thing. Sure in 2009 Nokia had the money. By 2011 creditors lowered N. rating (reflected in the memo), which means what by 2012 they would have no spare money aka cash. And you probably forgetting what Nokia had a ridiculous amount of employees (which clearly seen by how many were let go by 2013-2014). You need many, many monies to support that amount of people and you can't tell them to fuck off like in the US with the at-will employment, you need to provide the severance and pension funds for everyone. Without money the only thing you can do is to close the doors and file for bankruptcy. If you want to continue your business - you need first to pay out the social responsibilities. And that costs money. And guess who not only had the money but was willing to pour them into Nokia?
[0] Literally. I've read the 'memoirs' of the guy who worked there before and while. I had a friend working in Finland some time later. The stories she told about passiveness, lack of enthusiasm, always trying to evade the responsibility - just confirmed me the things what I knew at that time, and no amount of naked sauna helps. Hell, they didn't even had the guts to fire her, instead making macabre dances to force her to quit. Which, after a more than half of year of doing literally nothing (their way to get her out), she gladly did and went to MS.
Funny enough, she is at Google now and some shit what is happening there directly resembles what was happening almost decade ago in Finland.
I'm not forgetting anything. All of these issues are present in a switch to the Microsoft platform too, and it was already clear to most observers when they did that, that the MS platform was dead in the water.
> hey would needed to compete with iPhone 4S
As did every other player, and outside the US the iPhone was not dominant in the same way.
> you can't tell them to fuck off like in the US
They had engineering units in the US which they could have done that to. And there are things you can do in most European countries too, when situations are dire.
> You may don't like Elop and his actions as much as you want, but there is zero chances they could do anything themselves.
I very much disagree, as do many observers. It could have been turned around with good management, but that doesn't seem to have been Elop's aim, his aim seemed to be to fulfill goals for MS.
> And guess who not only had the money but was willing to pour them into Nokia?
Yes, it was a stitch-up job for MS to buy an established name to try to save their dead mobile platform.