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Nokia, Intel Partner on Next-Gen Mobile Platform

It looks like Microsoft isn't the only company calling a mulligan in the smartphone market. Industry giant Nokia, which has been hemorrhaging market share to rivals such as Apple, Google, and RIM, is also creating an entirely new mobile platform to meet emerging customer needs. But unlike its competitors, Nokia isn't going it alone: It's partnering with chip giant Intel.

The companies are creating a new mobile platform called MeeGo that merges the best technologies from Nokia's Maemo platform and Intel's Moblin. All are based on Linux (as is Google's Android system) and MeeGo will also be open sourced so that others can modify it.

MeeGo is envisioned as a high-end smartphone operating system that will also be used in tablets, netbooks, televisions, and automobiles. It will run on the ARM hardware used by many mobile devices as well as Intel's Atom. The first MeeGo devices should appear in the second half of 2010.

Unlike with Microsoft's newly announced Windows Phone 7 Series, however, there aren't many details available yet about MeeGo. Nokia and Intel haven't shown off the UI yet, for example, but say that more information, including developer documentation, will appear within weeks.

The big question here is whether mobile companies other than Nokia will adopt the platform. This will require Nokia to work with its competitors as well as compete against them with its own devices

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