Intel and Nokia combine Moblin and Maemo, end up with MeeGo
Just in from the "where did this come from?" department, we have news out of Barcelona regarding a very interesting partnership between two behemoths of the mobile industry. This afternoon, Intel and Nokia announced the merging of their respective operating systems, Moblin and Maemo.
From here on out, the combined OS will be known as MeeGo and should be available later this year. According to Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, "MeeGo will drive an even wider range of Internet computing and communication experiences for consumers, on new types of mobile devices." The benefits are obvious for Moblin since it gets to piggyback on an already successful and mature Maemo ecosystem, along with taking advantage of the Ovi Store for downloads.
Still unknown is what Maemo will get out of this union, considering Intel's support for x86-based architectures. Either Intel will need to support the ARM-based core in devices such as the Nokia N900, or maybe they will introduce a new line of Atom processors designed specifically for smartphones, which would enhance performance dramatically.
Even though Maemo 6 is already in the pipeline, it's unclear whether it will become the first version of MeeGo, but we should find out more in the second half of 2010. As long as the new platform stays true to its open source roots, we should see some exciting new products from Intel and Nokia, regardless of the strange choice of MeeGo as the new moniker.
[Nokia press release | MeeGo]
