Nokia: MeeGo(es), Tizen in

Nokia's MeeGo-based N9, which was launched with much fanfare worldwide, could well turn out the first and last MeeGo smartphone to ever see the light of the day. Yes, the much-hyped mobile OS is finally getting substituted by a new OS named Tizen. MeeGo, an outcome of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin Operating System merger was ditched by Nokia soon after its inception, and later adopted Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Operating System. 

For those who want to know more about Tizen OS, it is the result of a joint effort by Samsung and Intel, hosted by the Linux Foundation. Tizen will support multiple devices which include smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs, netbooks and even in-vehicle infotainment devices. One of the chief reasons why Tizen has replaced MeeGo is the fact that it is based on HTML5 and various other soon-to-be-launched web standards.

However, the basic question that pops up first in mind that why Nokia didn't choose to improve MeeGo. Mr. Imad Sousou, Director, Intel Open Source Technology Center has answer to this question.

One the MeeGo Blog, he writes, "this new project is first and foremost open source, and based on Linux. So it begs the question: why not just evolve MeeGo? We believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications. … Shifting to HTML5 doesn’t just mean slapping a web runtime on an existing Linux, even one aimed at mobile, as MeeGo has been.” 

Meanwhile, Mr. Sousou promised to make the experience of transition from MeeGo to Tizen as easy as possible for users and developers. The promise may convince users but developers fraternity may not be too pleased with this abrupt change.

Interestingly, Tizen’s arrival as the new OS just goes on to show how Nokia’s unpredictable smartphone business strategy has proved disastrous. First Symbian and now Meego. Let’s see if Tizen joins this list in near future or not.