MeeGo might not be around the corner with Intel pointing at 2011
Over the past few months it seemed like things were starting to fall in place for MeeGo. The likelihood of a MeeGo smartphone launching before year's end was looking positive, too, with Nokia stating that we could expect the first ARM-powered MeeGo smartphone by the end of 2010, punctuated by the recent sighting of an alleged prototype Nokia N9 appearing to run MeeGo. But the Finnish company's partner in the venture, Intel, has today stated that while MeeGo is on schedule, mobile devices including handsets and tablets will not be shipping until the first half of next year.
Nokia has so far neither confirmed nor denied the new information from Intel, but this would clearly be a disappointing setback for the company as it pins its high-end hopes on the new OS. It's also fairly easy to theorize that the recent managerial turmoil at Nokia may have had some negative impact on the MeeGo project, particularly the departure of MeeGo Devices VP Ari Jaaksi. On the brighter side, Intel has confirmed that we should be seeing some other MeeGo devices on the market this year such as netbooks and Internet-connected TVs.
Whatever is going on behind the scenes, things are definitely not looking so rosy for Nokia and MeeGo currently and further delays could end up placing even more pressure on the next-gen Nokia N-series device with its smartphone variant of MeeGo to be practically perfect out of the gate in order to have any chance at all against the current market leaders. Have you been waiting for Nokia's next flagship running MeeGo? What do you make of the delays?
[Forbes via PocketNow]
