INTEL KILLS MEEGO, SWITCHES TO TIZAN

Intel announced on Wednesday that it will be shifting its efforts from MeeGo to the new “Tizen” mobile operating system recently announced by The Linux Foundation. The move is in line with reports from early September that suggested Intel would move on due to a lack of consumer enthusiasm surrounding the OS. Nokia launched the MeeGo-powered N9 this month but also announced in June that it was ditching the platform in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS. “We believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5,” Intel said in a blog post, explaining why it did not decide to evolve MeeGo. “Shifting to HTML5 doesn’t just mean slapping a web runtime on an existing Linux, even one aimed at mobile, as MeeGo has been.” Intel also noted Tizen will support smartphones, tablets, netbooks, smart TVs and in-vehicle systems.

RUMOR: INTEL BAILING ON MEEGO

Intel plans to discontinue development of its MeeGo operating system for the time being due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform, DigiTimes reported on Friday. Citing multiple anonymous industry sources, the report claims Intel will instead focus on “handset platforms to be paired with either Android or Windows Phone in 2012.” Nokia had initially been Intel’s premier partner on the MeeGo platform, but the company recently announced that it was dumping MeeGo in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. Nokia did unveil one MeeGo-powered phone this past June, the Nokia N9, but the Finnish vendor simultaneously confirmed that the N9 would be the first and only MeeGo smartphone Nokia produces.

In response to DigiTimes’ claims, Intel commented that it “remains committed to MeeGo and will continue to work with the community to develop and help meet the needs of customers and end users with open source.”

INTEL TO CONTINUE MEEGO DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT NOKIA

With Nokia's recent announcement that they would be moving to the Windows Phone 7 platform, many wondered what would happen to the MeeGo platform Nokia was developing in conjuction with Intel. Intel's CEO Paul Otellini spoke with Bloombergat Mobile World Congress to allay any fears of the demise of MeeGo.

Otellini said that he doesn't see that "Nokia changing its strategy changes the industry strategy," and added that "operators still look for an open, operator-friendly operating system." Otellini further went on to say on a panel discussion that he "understood" why Nokia made the decision it did, and even said that if he were in the same position he would have made "the same or a similar call." That doesn't mean he wasn't disappointed by it though

NOKIA SHAREHOLDERS REBELLING AGAINST MICROSOFT DECISION

Not everyone is happy about Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive, teaming up with Microsoft. Workers in Finland have voiced their displeasure by walking out and now a group of young shareholders is formulating an alternate strategy called "Nokia Plan B".

The shareholders, all of whom have experience working for the company, are happy with the decision to embrace Microsoft and will challenge that decision and strategy going forward.

The group has sent an open letter to other shareholders for support. The group needs to get elected as a majority to the Board of Directors at the next annual meeting on May 3rd. The open letter goes into great detail as to what agenda and concrete actions the group intends to pursue. The details of which are summarized below:

Agenda

• Return to high growth, high profitability strategy
• Maintain ownership of the software layer on Nokia products (read: no Windows OS)
• Introduce hiring strategy that targets young software talent
• Eliminate outdated and bureaucratic R&D policies to improve efficiency
• Avoid becoming poorly differentiated OEM with low margins and commodity products

Concrete Actions

• Immediate discharge of Stephen Elop as President and CEO of Nokia
• Restructure alliance with Microsoft as tactical exercise focused on North America
• MeeGo will become Nokia’s primary smartphone platform
• Increase the lifespan of Symbian to a minimum of 5 years
• Qt development to focus on MeeGo, but support Symbian too
• End of distributed R&D
• End of R&D outsourcing
• Leadership team shakeup
• Aggressively recruit young software engineers
• Strategy for S40 and Ovi platforms going forward

Overall, this strategy would see Nokia become a leaner company focused on MeeGo from a software perspective going forward. It would also see the average age of employees fall due to the new focus on young developers.