Monday, June 27, 2011

The Case for MeeGo


(Cross-posted on Blog Inquirer Mind)

Nokia unveiled its latest smartphone, N9, at the "Nokia Connection 2011" summit on June 21 at Singapore.On a first look,it is everything you'd ever wanted from the company: a smartphone with a competitive spec sheet, and a touch-centric UI that looks futuristic.

The company had laid claims that is would be the only high-end smartphone line based on MeeGo,- which is an open source, Linux project which brings together the Moblin project, headed up by Intel, and Maemo, by Nokia, into a single open source activity.

Observers believe that Nokia is at crossroads as it has announced it is abandoning the Symbian platform in favour of Windows Mobile but had to take U-turn with announcement of the N9 handset powered by MeeGo which is another open source platform.

The compelling features touted by the manufacturer as being highlight of this handset are as follows:

- Polycarbonate material
- Carl zeiss lens 8mp camera
- Gorilla glass Display,
- HD playing capability upto 1080p,
- Dolby Sound Enhancement" etc.

The real story

But the real story behind this new gadget is the war between two platforms (Windows Mobile and MeeGo(or the larger open source bandwagon to be exact))on one side and two mobile giants (Nokia and Intel)on other.

Earlier, after release of Nokia N8,Nokia announced it would make Windows Phone 7 Nokia's primary mobile platform, not MeeGo. This halted a bold initiative to bring Linux to a new class of Nokia mobile devices.This had been deplored by scores of mobile enthusiasts and platform developers (especially from open source arena)as a behind the scene understanding between Nokia and Microsoft to put brakes on open-source based mobile OS's to emerge as a strong contender in market through Nokia handsets.

Moreover, Nokia at the corporate level had tried to use the wings of some negative reviews by tech gurus on MeeGo OS that is was yet to develop a viable development community. But after negative reviews from public and also the resignation of its technical head in this issue,Nokia had second thoughts and made a u-turn by this announcement that MeeGo shall be the primary OS for at least the upcoming high-end release from Nokia.

Another noted observation on the current market is that if Nokia completely turned to Propreitory OS, it would have to suffer stiff competition from MeeGo + Android on one hand and also possibility of losing its current market space to other giants which is already happening on a large scale.

The case of MeeGo

But the fact remains that MeeGo also continues to be a viable choice for device manufacturers looking to enter a competitive mobile market providing a clearly differentiated experience.Nokia hadn't expected such rave reviews from onlookers when it decided to go for Windows Mobile platform forever.Intel is actively behind MeeGo and QT and this company is going to go full throttle at the mobile space over the next few years. Maybe this has prompted Nokia who want to be another monopoly to thwart the emergence of another competitor in the market.

"The fundamentals fundamentally favor open source", said Jim Zemlin, Linux foundation director, at the Mobile World conference keynote at Singapore.The late reviews on features of new handset N9 is also positive as it sports video call facility which is not included even in latest iPhone version which claims to own the major player in smarphones.

If Intel wants MeeGo to be viable in its future, it is also needed that the platform should try to evolve as a robust one within a short span of time.The current situation though is changing soon though, as the fundamentals aren't completely horrible and the frameworks, community and ecosystem are quietly being built up for MeeGo.

The author doesn't claim that the information published in the post is authentic and is purely based on observations