Moblin and Maemo Spawn MeeGo

Nokia seems very serious about remaining Android-less, as it said last year it wasn’t considering a move to Android, and has continued to work on Maemo, its own Linux derivative. On Monday at Mobile World Congress (MWC), it solidified its relationship with Intel, announcing that the two companies were combining their respective Linux platforms to form a new one: MeeGo.

Last year, Intel and Nokia announced a “long-term relationship,” and MeeGo appears to be the first concrete fruits of that pact. MeeGo will merge Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo to create a platform for next-generation devices, beyond smartphones, Nokia said.

Nokia was clear in that smartphones will continue to be developed using the Symbian platform. d Mark Durrant, director of Corporate Development Communications at Nokia, said: “This affects nothing about our Symbian strategy. That continues to be our strategy for smartphones. We will use the MeeGo platform as we used the Maemo platform. For high-end mobile devices. What we call pocketable devices. Devices that really go beyond today’s smartphones.”

MeeGo will be used for “pocketable” mobile computers, netbooks, tablets PCs, connected TVs, and in-vehicle infotainment systems. To this point, Nokia’s Maemo has been used in its N900, which fits into that “pocketable” mobile computer category. Intel’s Moblin has appeared in netbooks from Dell, Acer, and Asus. It was also shown at this year’s CES in a future LG smartphone.

MeeGo will use Nokia’s Qt application environment. Applications written for MeeGo can be recompiled and run on Symbian. The companies said that MeeGo is expected to be released in Q2, with devices appearing in the second half of this year.

One definite problem with MeeGo: it is way too to Meebo, the multi-protocol IM service.  There is most assuredly going to be confusion (and I specifically had to be careful while writing this!).