With the news that HP is seriously reevaluating the longevity of the webOS platform, it looks like another mobile OS has fallen by the wayside.
After being largely abandoned by Nokia for Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, Intel has announced a ‘temporary’ halt on development of Meego. The company will reportedly focus on hardware development for either the Windows Phone OS or Android.
DigiTimes reports that Meego development had been halted “due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform from handset and tablet PC vendors.”
This is what Intel had to say about the report:
“Intel does not comment on industry speculation or rumor. We remain committed to MeeGo and open source, and will continue to work with the community to help develop and meet the needs of customers and end users.”
Don’t kid yourself, Intel.
The Nokia N9 is one of the few devices left that runs Meego, and Intel’s OS has gained little to no traction in the mobile market. It’s not surprising that the plug is getting pulled.
The only major players right now are iOS and Android. However, Amazon’s new tablet may prove to be a force to be reckoned with. Only time will tell.
It’s the weekend, so I’m using this as an excuse to embed this song:
(via WIRED)
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
25 responses to “Another One Bites the Dust: Intel Halts Development of Meego OS [Report]”
Which is heralded and stewarded by the Linux Foundation means absolutely nothing. Meego will be supported Via Kernel developers to fit Intel hardware not the other around simply. So despite losing Intel, Meego can very much live, just not as much.
Know what? I hate to read this.
I am a long time apple user. My first Mac was a Quadra 650, so take my word for it, I really like their products. But this isn’t healthy at all!I want these Idiots to be out there, giving Apple (and each other) a hard time.This feels like the 1990s all over again, just the other way round.It wasn’t good back then, it wont be great today.
Embedding of “Another One Bites the Dust” wholly approved. I wrote a post about Android (phones) in space yesterday, and had to restrain myself from linking to “Bowies in Space” from Flight of the Conchords.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The market does not need another OS. There is no desire for one. The market will only support two, maybe three mainstream OSes. There are still those who still want BeOS, AmigaOS, or NeXTStep (GNUStep), but it’s silly, and the market shows it.
The market wants software that works. The more OSes, the less likely software will work with your OS. And it makes development of good software harder too as developers have to support multiple OSes. Too much hassle.
Beat me to the punch. DOS sucked, but Apple’s GUI made them create Windows – which sucks by today’s standards, but was a quantum leap for PCs. It took OS/2 to get Windows 95, which sucked a lot less. But after that Windows was horrid for 15 YEARS. It took Apple eating their lunch (okay, maybe their dessert) to get them to try, and that took two attempts to get Win7, which is still only mediocre.
Apple might keep spending money to improve iOS, but you need a competitor to avoid tunnel vision. The best thing that can happen to iOS is if HP can turn WebOS into a real alternative. It’s too bad HP hired their third straight idiot as CEO, as it looks like his first major act is to “disappear” his predecessor’s trademark activities.
What the hell is meego?! Is that nokias OS? I thought I knew every OS
I am not that happy with Intel neglecting/abandoning Meego. Not only because I find it nice and fun, but just for variety’s shake, it’s a bad think when an OS gets scraped. Some people may have preffered it.
Whatever.
But, Mr. Brownlee, linking to a great song from a great band to emphasize/manifest your zealotry, is insulting.
You’d rather even say “Meego, you’re fucked, nah-nah nah-nah-nah”, because that’s what I get from your post.
What good is variety for the sake of it, if when doing an informed and intelligent decision, we opt for iOS ?
Variety would be good if all the options were equally brilliant, but what we see here is a good apple in a basket full of exotic fruits, which sadly are rotten.
Meego was always dead – I was at a friends wedding last summer talking to a guy from Nokia. Me ego came up Iin conversation and he was already describing it as a dead product. His job was in PR and he said that NOBODY was interested in it in the industry – this was 14 months ago.
WebOS might have had a chance if HP actually tried…
But this, Meego, was it ever on a device even? One that was sold that is.
It’s something Intel has been working on…
Nokia where at least going to use it, but I’m not sure anyone ever did…
From the screenshots up there it looks like a WebOS ripoff :p
While I see your point (which is why I welcome Android and even has an Android device) this hardly matters, this is to iOS and Android like Damn Small Linux is to Windows :p nothing that is…
I always hate seeing all that development effort dying off. It must be really disheartening to have worked on that project for the past few years only to see it fade away, branded a losing platform. But I think Meego was never really going to succeed – too late to the game, and initially it was a prop for Intel’s failed Atom for phones concept.