If you’ve never played around with the Nokia N9, the only MeeGo handset on the market, then you’re missing out. It’s one of those handset that geeks everywhere get a little nostalgic about because it MeeGo really was a great operating system. According to an industry insider Nokia is working on 2 new low end MeeGo handsets, and information was recieved directly from Nokia’s Next Billion Group.
Since Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, the company has essentially been divided into two groups, one focused on Windows Phone and the Next Billion Group who is reponsible for the S40 & Asha lines. The two groups have completely different tasks, the Windows team obviously keeps Microsoft happy and the Next Billion Group is tasked with creating low costs handsets which will likely be the first place that they will access the internet. Even though Windows Phone has the budget Lumia 610, Windows Phone isn’t the capable of being a low cost handset for a few different reasons.
The big question is “Why would Nokia still care about Meego?”
The most obvious reason is that Windows Phone just can’t compete in the low end smartphone game. First there is the operating system which isn’t free, that alone drives up the price. If we take a look at the latest budget Windows phone the Lumia 610, it is a 256mb devices and some features are being disabled because the device just doesn’t have the available RAM.
Let’s keep on looking at Nokia’s other operating system options, there is also their S40 java based devices aka the new Asha line. This line up of handsets haven’t exactly received stellar sales numbers. One of the reasons the line isn’t performing as well is that the touch experience isn’t competitive. When you’re competing on price point it’s often about packing in as many features as possible and if you go up against similarly priced Android handsets there it is really no contest.
Nokia could also use Symbian, expect they can’t, Symbian is now run by Accenture so they don’t have control over the Symbian device roadmaps which is aimed at high end phones. So we’re going to see the same problems here as in Windows Phone 7 and the base cost of fully functioning feature rich handset are going to be too high.
MeeGo is also a lot more adaptable than Windows Phone, its roots are in open source. PhoneNews raises some good points around MeeGo, if we think about where the next billion handsets are coming from they are going to be in areas where solar power charging may be more important than ten-point multitouch. MeeGo can also work with monochrome or e-ink display’s and the Windows Phone platform restrictions would shoot down the innovation that Nokia will need to drop smartphone technology in places where it cannot thrive today.
Since Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, the company has essentially been divided into two groups, one focused on Windows Phone and the Next Billion Group who is reponsible for the S40 & Asha lines. The two groups have completely different tasks, the Windows team obviously keeps Microsoft happy and the Next Billion Group is tasked with creating low costs handsets which will likely be the first place that they will access the internet. Even though Windows Phone has the budget Lumia 610, Windows Phone isn’t the capable of being a low cost handset for a few different reasons.
The big question is “Why would Nokia still care about Meego?”
The most obvious reason is that Windows Phone just can’t compete in the low end smartphone game. First there is the operating system which isn’t free, that alone drives up the price. If we take a look at the latest budget Windows phone the Lumia 610, it is a 256mb devices and some features are being disabled because the device just doesn’t have the available RAM.
Let’s keep on looking at Nokia’s other operating system options, there is also their S40 java based devices aka the new Asha line. This line up of handsets haven’t exactly received stellar sales numbers. One of the reasons the line isn’t performing as well is that the touch experience isn’t competitive. When you’re competing on price point it’s often about packing in as many features as possible and if you go up against similarly priced Android handsets there it is really no contest.
Nokia could also use Symbian, expect they can’t, Symbian is now run by Accenture so they don’t have control over the Symbian device roadmaps which is aimed at high end phones. So we’re going to see the same problems here as in Windows Phone 7 and the base cost of fully functioning feature rich handset are going to be too high.
MeeGo is also a lot more adaptable than Windows Phone, its roots are in open source. PhoneNews raises some good points around MeeGo, if we think about where the next billion handsets are coming from they are going to be in areas where solar power charging may be more important than ten-point multitouch. MeeGo can also work with monochrome or e-ink display’s and the Windows Phone platform restrictions would shoot down the innovation that Nokia will need to drop smartphone technology in places where it cannot thrive today.
Meego CE Summer Edition on Nokia N900:
Nokia N9 MeeGo Smartphone - Full Presentation with all Slides:
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