After Nokia Corp. very publicly distanced themselves from MeeGo development late last week, many wondered what would become of the in-development mobile OS, which was born out of a partnership between the Finnish phone maker and ubiquitous chip manufacturer Intel Corp. Intel isn’t traditionally a consumer software company, so with Nokia walking out, how would development on MeeGo continue? The answer, from Intel’s perspective at least, is that there won’t be any change at all.
Shortly after Nokia’s announcement, Intel issued a statement reiterating their commitment to the platform.
“[We are] not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.” At a panel event today Intel CEO Paul Otellini said he “understood” why Nokia made their decision.
At this week’s MeeGo AppLab, which took place at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Intel put it’s money where it’s mouth is – quite literally. To get some developmental buzz going around the fledgling platform, Intel gave away no less than 250 tablets running the latest version of MeeGo, and promised developers attending access to a suite of optimisation tools that usually cost around $1,500.
As if that wasn’t enough, Intel is also offering a $500 prize for the first 100 apps accepted into the MeeGo AppUp store, of which 10 will be chosen to get a further $1,000 prize.
There was also talk of bonus prizes such as trips to the South Pole and flights in supersonic jets for developers who produce killer apps for the platform.
It’s common knowledge that Intel is pretty loaded, and Microsoft Corp. has employed the “Develop for our platform and we’ll pay you a ton of money” strategy to relative success in the past, however huge question marks still loom over the question of whether MeeGo can become a viable platform in the already-overcrowded mobile devices arena. With iOS, Android and webOS all vying for consumer attention – not to mention being established and backed by the biggest names in the industry – in both the smart phone and tablet space, our gut says “No.”
