US chip maker Intel and Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia announced Monday the launch of a joint software platform that will power a wide range of devices from smartphones to pocket computers.
The two groups will merge their systems, Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin, to form MeeGo, an open software platform that will be available to all manufacturers and developers, the companies said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The Linux-based platform is scheduled to be launched in the second quarter of this year and the first devices later this year.
The market for mobile operating systems was shaken by the emergence of Internet giant Google's Android platform, which is open and thus can be used for free by all manufacturers.
Nokia already owns an operating system, Symbian, which leads the market but has lost ground to Android and Apple's iPhone. The Finnish company said earlier this month it would make Symbian an open platform.
"MeeGo will drive an even wider range of Internet computing and communication experiences for consumers, on new types of mobile devices," said Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.
(c) 2010 AFP
