MeToo: Nokia and Intel plan new ‘MeeGo’ platform in attempt to catch up with Apple

Monday, February 15, 2010 - 04:36 PM EDT

"Nokia and Intel on Monday unveiled plans for a new operating system to power sophisticated smartphones and netbook computers, in an attempt to catch up with Apple and Google," Andrew Parker and Paul Taylor report for The Financial TImes. "The new platform, called MeeGo, could enable Nokia to improve its weak position in high-end smartphones, where the world’s largest mobile maker has faced criticism that it lacks a handset to rival Apple’s iPhone. The platform could also help Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, to finally push its way into the mobile market after several failed initiatives."

MacDailyNews Take: MeGoo? Sorry, MeeGo? They should've just named it YAMOS (Yet Another Mobile Operating System).

Parker and Taylor continue, "MeeGo will combine Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin, which are both Linux-based operating systems, and the first devices using the new platform are expected in the second half of this year," Parker and Taylor report. "Like Android, MeeGo software will be freely available to manufacturers of smartphones and other consumer electronics devices. Software developers will also be able to use MeeGo on an open source basis, so that they can build applications that run on any devices featuring the operating system."

MacDailyNews Take: Stuffing the marketplace full of superfluity only benefits Apple.

Parker and Taylor continue, "Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia’s chief executive, told the Financial Times that MeeGo would be likely to feature on a broader range of devices than Android, which has just started to be used on netbooks as well as smartphones... Mr Kallasvuo denied the creation of MeeGo would kill off Symbian, the company’s longstanding operating system for smartphones, which some analysts believe falls short of Apple’s iPhone OS platform..."