Nokia dropping release-based Symbian; no MeeGo until 2011
updated 12:35 pm EDT, Thu October 21, 2010
Nokia delays MeeGo to 2011, moves to Qt framework
Nokia on Thursday announced a major change in its strategy from a developer standpoint that will drop released-based, major iterations of Symbian. It will now shift exclusively to the Qt application development framework that will allow it to develop for both Symbian and MeeGo platforms simultaneously. HTML5 support will also become key, with web browsers in either OS supporting it.
Any apps developed thus will remain compatible with current Symbian^3 devices. As such, the ^3 and ^4 suffixes will also be dropped, and the OS will simply be known as Symbian. Any updates will be rolled out as continuous, over-the-air updates rather than evolutionary OS updates. The move should give owners features that would previously have been held back for a larger release.
At the same time, Nokia's new CEO Stephen Elop said during the company's fiscal results call that MeeGo will arrive in 2011 rather than late 2010 as hinted earlier. No reason for the delay was given, but the Intel/Nokia collaboration is only just adding phone support and is still waiting on Nokia's customized UI. The N9 (below) is expected to be the first device.
