Nokia and Intel announce cooperation

Giants in their respective fields want to benefit from large market shares

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Intel, the world’s largest manufacturer or semiconductors, and Nokia, the largest manufacturer or mobile telephones, are linking up their programming development activities.
      The Moblin software platform, developed by Intel for mobile devices, and Nokia’s corresponding Maemo are to be merged into MeeGo a new Linux-based software platform.
      The aim of Intel and Nokia is utilise the strengths and large market shares of both companies.
     
Intel dominates the world market in microprocessors, while Nokia, and the Symbian foundation under its control, are leaders in smartphone software. Symbian software is used by several other mobile telephone manufacturers besides Nokia.
     
“It is most important that MeeGo is not limited to mobile telephones alone, and that it would be a completely open software platform. Everyone can take part in its development, and I believe that Intel and Nokia will bring credibility to the project”, said Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in a joint interview with Helsingin Sanomat and five other media outlets.
      Nokia and Intel started working together last summer. Nokia uses Intel’s micro-circuitry in its mobile computers, which were introduced in the autumn. Now cooperation is expanding considerably.
      According to Kallasvuo, MeeGo is not intended as an attack against anyone. He says that it makes it possible to develop devices that fall somewhere between computers and smartphones.
     
With its new iPad, the US manufacturer Apple is aiming at the same market. Apple software is not as open as that of MeeGo or Symbian, however.
      Google’s Linux-based Android operating system, is Nokia’s competitor in open operating systems.
      “We want to reduce the splintering of this branch of industry into several different programmes. MeeGo supports the Qt environment, which means that those who are developing applications do not have to write programmes for individual devices and software platforms.”
     
Qt is a development environment that is largely based on technology developed by the Norwegian Trolltech.
      Nokia bought Trolltech in June 2008 for slightly more than EUR 100 million.
      For application developers, MeeGo will open sometime in April-June this year. The new MeeGo products will reach store shelves in the autumn.
      Robert Andersson, Nokia’s head of Corporate Alliances and Business Development, says that MeeGo works just like the programming of the Symbian Foundation: the manufacturers who use it are able to develop their own versions, thereby distinguishing themselves from their competitors.
     
“The establishment of MeeGo shows that our vision of the development in the field is completely clear. We are making use of the advantage of scale in order to create an ecosystem that is of benefit to all players in the field”, Andersson says.
      MeeGo is administered and maintained by the Linux Foundation.
      Kallasvuo pointed out that the competitive situation on the market has changed considerably.
      “I know of no other sector in which the competitors have such great strategic differences in their business. We seek to increase the value that our devices have for consumers with content and services, which are completely open. Some of our competitors do almost the exact opposite”, Kallasvuo said.


See also:
  Nokia will use price weapon in next year’s smart phone market (3.12.2009)
  Nokia to buy Norwegian open source software vendor Trolltech (29.1.2008)
  Patent dispute heats up between Nokia and Apple (7.1.2010)

Links:
  Nokia press release: Intel and Nokia merge software platforms for future computing devices February 15, 2010

Helsingin Sanomat