MeeGo for N900? Maybe
By Alexis • Mar 19th, 2010 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: Nokia
The Nokia N900 is a part of Nokia’s ongoing line of iPhone competitors. A great device in its own right, this QWERTY phone’s primary feature was the new mobile OS it sported, Nokia’s Maemo, which was very well received and believed to be a genuine competitor to other mobile OS platforms, as well as a breath of fresh air, considering the Symbian OS is well past its expiry date.
Maemo + Moblin = MeeGo
Then, at the Mobile World Conference, Nokia and Intel announced they were combining Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin into one hardware-software operating system called MeeGo. The advantage MeeGo would give the two is a single operating system that communicates with software and hardware with equal proficiency. It also has Nokia’s team developing devices that are not mobile phones, giving them valuable experience, and Intel’s team developing for mobile phones so that they can get a better grip of that industry’s processing requirements.
The N900 with MeeGo
So the major question is: will MeeGo be made available for the N900? The Finnish company’s response: ‘maybe’. Senior management at Nokia have indicated the door is not closed on seeing MeeGo on the Nokia N900, but they will not shoe horn it in. All of that is corporate speak for ‘if it’s financially advantageous to make MeeGo available on the platform, then it will be done. If not, you will not see it on the phone.’
The opportunity
Assuming the Nokia N900 device capabilities allow MeeGo to run – and on all accounts, it does – Nokia and Intel would be missing out on a massive opportunity to get MeeGo into people’s hands without needing to launch new accompanying devices. So to pass up on the opportunity for strategic reasons outside of financial limitations would be irresponsible on Nokia’s part.
Tags for this article: Maemo, MeeGo, moblin, N900, Nokia N900
As an N900 owner, if Nokia do not make MeeGo available on the N900, I will *never* buy a Nokia device again, on principle, and I’ll also tell anyone who will listen what they did. And it better be a darn sight better than Maemo, too. iPhone competitor? Not even close.