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Intel joins Nokia in Android attack

Corpses of Moblin and Meamo line route

MWC Intel and Nokia have joined forced to create a new platform to take on Google's Android - MeeGo.

MeeGo, announced this morning, is to be constructed from the best bits of Maemo and Moblin: Nokia and Intel's existing Linux-based platforms respectively. It will be available later this year with the avowed intention of taking on Android in everything from smartphones to tablets, and all those other form factors we haven't thought of yet.

Clearly, Symbian hasn't been punching its weight in the fight against Android. When asked directly what MeeGo means for the world's most-popular smartphone platform, Nokia responded that Symbian is ideally suited to "bringing smartphones to the masses" and that launching MeeGo is "entirely consistent with Nokia's strategy". That would be the strategy which squeezes Symbian into the feature phone market, while the cool stuff gets Linux-based.

MeeGo will be Linux-based - not only that, but it will also be hosted by the Linux Foundation and "fully open", as both Nokia and Intel repeatedly reiterated.

Qt will be the development platform of choice on MeeGo, which isn't surprising given Nokia's existing dedication to the platform, and Intel was keen to stress that the MeeGo won't be limited to x86 architectures either. It's an open platform for everybody, regardless of chipsets, architectures or form factors.

Not that anybody else was on the stage with Intel and Nokia today - apparently we can expect announcements from other manufacturers "in the next couple of weeks". It will be those announcements which will tell us if MeeGo really has the muscle to take on Android, or if Google's robotic vision of the future is unstoppable. ®

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