MeeGo no-go for Nokia
MeeGo looked set to be the new OS hope for Nokia’s flailing smartphone divison prior to the Windows Phone 7 tie up. But now it looks as though the Finnish phone giants will be passing up on using MeeGo altogether.
Speaking at the Uplinq expo in California, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop explained why his team ultimately gave up on MeeGo.
“We had a lot of great innovation and a lot of great work that had taken place around the MeeGo platform but what we assessed was that we could not create a portfolio of devices covering a full range of price-points fast enough to deal, or respond to our competitors,” he said.
“MeeGo comes in at the high end but we couldn’t see it coming down fast enough to help us deal with all of our problems.”
LG and Asus seem the companies to pick up the MeeGo mantle once more, with MeeGo -packing devices of their own expected to be revealed in the coming months.
Elop also told those waiting for a Nokia tablet not to hold their breath. The CEO is not prepared to be a runner-up in the tablet race, and until the Finnish mobile gurus can deliver a device to beat the Apple’s iPad, they won’t be pulling the trigger for some time.
“Let’s say there are 201 tablets,” he said. “One of those tablets is being sold furiously and at great profit, is very, very successful and is obviously a very delightful experience.
“The other 200 tablets, with all due respect, are not yet attractive enough to gain any momentum and that’s a concern to a lot of retailers.
“For Nokia, I always say with regards to our tablet strategy – I don’t just want to be number 202.”
