Nokia is sure banking influential on MeeGo to save it in the super smart phone category and after looking at the N8 we are sure that Symbian isn’t going to server them extensively. After rumors from Intel commenting about MeeGo’s availability, it is now official that Nokia would have its first MeeGo powered smart phone in 2011. The announcement was made by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop during the earnings call.
However, Nokia isn’t ditching Symbian all together anytime soon for sure. All applications are now developed using the Qt framework and that would allow these apps to work on both MeeGo and Symbian. Nokia has also announced that it is continuing with Symbian without its version numbering like ^3 or ^4 thus labeling the OS as just ‘Symbian’ going forward. I for some reason still smell a confusion and doubt on Nokia’s side. Perhaps they might be pulling a rabbit out of their hats in 2011 (we are already hearing MeeGo for low end devices that are S40’s domain currently), or they are just shying of from acknowledging that MeeGo would be THE thing to avoid hurting the current Symbian lineup.
Given the fact that Windows Phone 7 and HP webOS are also coming out just now, CES 2011 isn’t a bad time for Nokia to come out with the MeeGo powered N9. The race is far from over, and we would be at CES 2011 eagerly waiting to be surprised 🙂
i think Annkur today Nokia is facing the dilemma of (1) developing a more robust modern mobile OS so as to compete more efficiently with likes of iOS ,Android etc (2) simultaneously not taking the risk of displeasing its vast existing Symbian user base either by abandoning it or evolving it beyond a certain degree…..As a result of which (1) its betting high on Meego OS (2) providing QT framework so as to keep developers stuck to both meego & symbian platforms…..finally it will be interesting to see how Nokia fares at both fronts…..whether Meego establishes Nokia’s lost reputation in high-end smartphone segment….whether Nokia’s existing Symbian users remain loyal in the long run before falling prey to the android…etc..etc…
yeah, guess the new CEO got it right when he called Nokia ‘unpolished gems’. waiting to find the right shine