Ex-Nokia Employees Giving MeeGo OS Another Go

Jolla will be spearheaded by CEO Jussi Hurmola, former director of MeeGo computer releases and integration at Nokia. In a statement issued Sunday, Jolla said it has compiled a whole team of former "directors and core professionals" from the Finnish handset maker to breathe new life into MeeGo and even go to market with a new smartphone based on the OS later this year.

Other Jolla executives include CIO Stefano Mosconi, former MeeGo IT manager at Nokia, and COO Marc Dillon, former MeeGo principal engineer at Nokia. The company will be based in Helsinki, Finland. Jolla has not said whether it plans to launch a partner channel program and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Related: Report: Nokia Claims Google Nexus 7 Infringes On Several Patents ]

MeeGo was introduced at the Mobile World Congress event in 2010. A blend of Intel's Linux-based Moblin platform for devices based on its Atom chips and Nokia's Maemo mobile OS, it was positioned by both companies to become an alternative to Google's Android.

But, apart from being used to fuel Nokia's own N9 smartphone, MeeGo failed to carve a significant space for itself in the mobile OS market. Nokia, as a result, jumped ship in February 2011, unveiling a strategic alliance with Microsoft that would make Windows Phone 7 its predominant OS moving forward.

Intel followed suit in September 2011, halting its investment in MeeGo and turning its attention to new open-source OS Tizen.

In the eyes of Jolla's executives, however, the discarded OS deserves another run -- this time incorporating features from mobile platforms Mer Core and Qt, and boasting a revamped user interface.

"Nokia created something wonderful -- the world's best smartphone product," said Jolla's Hurmola in a statement. "It deserves to be continued, and we will do that together with all the bright and gifted people contributing to the MeeGo success story."

Jolla said it is working alongside international private investors and partners to ensure the launch of a MeeGo-based smartphone by the end of the year, adding that development has been ongoing since late 2011. It also said it is aggressively hiring MeeGo and Linux talent to further fuel its efforts.

When the revamped MeeGo eventually goes to market, it will face steep competition from Google's Android and Apple's iOS, which, according to industry analyst comScore, collectively account for 82.2 percent of the U.S. subscriber base. Other mobile platforms, including Research In Motion's BlackBerry 7 and Microsoft's Windows Phone, have struggled to compete against and Google and Apple's sprawling developer communities and robust app ecosystems.

PUBLISHED JULY 9, 2012