Last year at MWC, Nokia and Intel came together to merge their mobile OS projects Maemo and Moblin. Thus MeeGo was born. A year down the line, we are yet to see any commercial release for MeeGo powered device, but there are interesting observations here. Intel has been challenged by NVIDIA in the mobile space even though its chips power a range of netbooks. Intel has been busy promoting MeeGo as a platform and the App UP store along along with it. Nokia on the other hand is using the N900 (yes the only Maemo handheld from Finland) to test MeeGo and apps. Now throw in the fact that AppUp store’s offerings are low-res along with the rumored Nokia device running an Intel 1.6GHz processor and you realize that Intel has found a partner in Nokia to carry its chips on the mobile front. Why else would Nokia and Intel come together to make a OS anyway? The development framework for both Symbian and MeeGo is QT and that makes app development worries for Nokia at bay.
But to take-on the likes of LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix and the battalion of Tegra 2 powered smartphones coming up this year, Nokia has a chipmaker of Intel’s stature by its side. But wonder whats the deal between Intel and Nokia? Intel gets exclusivity on MeeGo offerings from Nokia? Or Nokia gets a super deal for using Intel chips? Whatever the bet here is, its certain that Nokia is the one losing ground in the smartphone race and it better works for them!
