Nokia and Intel choose Linux to face Apple, Google

Jonny Evans
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February 15, 2010
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Announced this morning in Barcelona, Apple’s computer chip supplier, Intel, has agreed to a smartphone software sharing deal with iPhone-nemesis, Nokia.

Nokia will merge its Linux Maemo software platform, used in its flagship N900 phone, with Intel's Moblin, also a version of Linux. The new software platform, called Meego, will be hosted by the Linux foundation, the companies said.

The plan goes beyond the phone - Google’s OS plans, as are those of Microsoft and Apple are now faced with a strong new threat: Linux-based MeeGo is “designed to work across a range of hardware architectures and devices including mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems,” the companies revealed.

Speaking about the announcement, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO, Nokia said:
“MeeGo will drive an even wider range of Internet computing and communication experiences for consumers, on new types of mobile devices. Through open innovation, MeeGo will create an ecosystem that is second to none, drawing in players from different industries. It will support a range of business models across the value chain, building on the experience and expertise of Nokia, Intel and all those who will join us. Simply put, MeeGo heralds a new era of mobile computing.”

The deal should help Intel secure more mobile sales for its Atom platform, at the very least.

Intel president and CEO, Paul Otellini said “Our vision for seamlessly communicating between computing devices from the home, auto, office or your pocket is taking a big step forward today with the introduction of MeeGo. This is a foundational step in our evolving relationship with Nokia. The merging of these two important assets into an open source platform is critical toward providing a terrific experience across a variety of devices and gaining cross- industry support.”

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Comments (16)

Luis Alejandro Masanti (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 5:37am

Another mobile OS! Just what everybody wanted!

But, wait, they did not even announced (or, at least, the article did not point out) a release date and/or characteristics, other than what we can suppose from the sum of Maemo/Moblin.

It is interesting how contrasting are the Apple/Nokia attitudes toward the software platform.

Apple: "One OS/platform to rule all devices."
Nokia: "Multiple OSes and multiple hardwares to dilapilate our efforts."

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 5:55am

And what were their other options? Take out Apple and Google out of the equation and the only viable alternative is some Linux based environment...

You can't beat Google, you need to go with them. Or with Apple. And Apple doesn't let you. Hence, it's Google or Linux. Since you don't get it, you go with Linux. And then you're hit the wall, albeit later than you would have if you had gone wiwith Win 7 mobile...

Lazysod (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 6:36am

I thought google is based on Linux.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 8:54am

Correct.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 10:16am

There's this thing of getting aboard with a major partner for a mutually beneficial relationship, that is using Google's OS in whatever variety, or trying to build yet another proprietary version of Linux - to compate against Google and Apple...

apples (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 6:19am

I'm i the only one who thinks all the pressure is on apple and 4.0 ?

pixelbart (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 8:41am

you mean, like, Apple has a working product with millions of users and a vivid development community, with the next (app-compatible) step in their strategy to be released in a few weeks, and they should be scared about a bunch of competitors kicking and screaming and admitting that their only option is to just copy Apple's strategy by announcing the ideas of their latest brainstorm-sessions as fully worked-out 'new strategies to anticipate competition in a dynamic market' without any evidence of development happening and existence of realistic release dates?

Oh yes, Steve should wet his pants right now. Of laughing.

Of course, if Apple would sit on its *ss for two years, they'll soon be history. But fact is, it's still quite lonely at the top of the mountain called 'usable and cool smartphones with a decent app store that Just Works (tm)'.

Macboy (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 8:11am

Rather... Metoo!

Gazoobee (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 8:21am

Show me two OS's that are easily "merged" and I'll show you two OS's that don't have anything new or different about them. If either of these projects were interesting in the first place the designers would never agree to merging with another random OS project so at the end of the day, this new OS will likely be as dull as either project was in isolation.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 16, 2010 - 6:04am

NEXT and Mac OS

pixelbart (not verified) | February 16, 2010 - 7:54am

It took four years to get to a (barely) releasable product and another four years before the first really finished version of OS X (Tiger) was released and then another four years until Snow Leopard.

That's not what I call 'easily'.

MS - You lose. Double trouble (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 9:32am

MS hopes to compete on multiple phones with their new phone/Zune OS (in the same manner they competed on desktop boxes). Trouble it they will want to sell it. The other trouble is no one will want to buy it.

pixelbart (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 10:02am

Microsoft doesn't sell directly to customers, they sell to phone makers which sell to telco's, which sell ('give away') to customers. So they will sell this big time, but first the phone makers will cram it on their phones without MS having any influence on the layout of the buttons and the quality/size of the touchscreen and then the telco's will install their crap on it to route as many services as possible through their 'premium' offerings.

So, as always with Microsoft, they *will* sell, people *will* use (but not love) the system, and that's a perfect business model. There's only a small problem: if the end-user experience is inconsistent or downright sucks, that's okay if those are only end-users, not if they are potential developers. I don't want to develop for a system if I know that this-or-that phone misses certain buttons or has other buttons in awkward places or has an over-sensitive touchscreen, because that'll mean that I first have to invest in different phones for testing purposes and that I end up with 20% of my time developing and 80% of my time maintaining my little app.

Unless they have a market share of 90%+ and I simply don't have another option. Which won't ever be the case like it was/is with PC's.

Macerroneous (not verified) | February 15, 2010 - 12:43pm

Mobile me does not equal meego! That's bass ackwards. Me go now.

ToeCutter (not verified) | February 16, 2010 - 4:09pm

Thanks Nokia, for turning my N900 into an obsolete dinosaur before it's a month old.

usb flash drive (not verified) | May 03, 2010 - 5:41am

A friend of mine just got an N900 so I was playing with it over the weekend.

Looking at it I'd say that if they don't deviate too much then there shouldn't be much of a problem - how many phones come with a shell and easy to get root access to it?

In fact when I was playing, maemo appears to be debian based underneath, so the fact that they are merging would probably just be a case of any two existing Linux distros merging.