Ex-Nokia MeeGo team unite to create new smartphones
updated 05:57 am EDT, Mon July 9, 2012
MeeGo resuscitated by ex-Nokia employees and MeeGo community
A team of ex-Nokia employes have joined with a group of MeeGo coders to form a new smartphone company dubbed Jolla. Jolla is Finnish for 'dinghy,' which suggests that its goal is to create a life raft for the stalled platform and push it forward commercially. The new organization is headed up by a former 11 year veteran of Nokia Marc Dillon who was the Principal Engineer of its Maemo OS, before it was merged with Intel's Moblin OS to create MeeGo.
'Nokia created something wonderful – the world’s best smartphone product,' reads a statement from Jolla. 'It deserves to be continued, and we will do that together with all the bright and gifted people contributing to the MeeGo success story.'
'Together with international investors and partners, Jolla Ltd. will design, develop and sell new MeeGo based smartphones,' the company continues. 'The Jolla team consists of a substantial number of MeeGo’s core engineers and directors, and is aggressively hiring the top MeeGo talent to contribute to the next generation smartphone production.'
Nokia released one flagship handset running the MeeGo OS, the Nokia N9. However, Jolla is quick to note that it does not plant to bring any OS updates that handset. Core elements of the N9 design, which was well-received, prompted Nokia to carry it over in its Lumia 800 and 900 handsets Windows Phone 7 handsets. The odds are of course stacked against the company, although it could carve a niche among enthusiasts of the open source OS.
