Nokia opens the Microsoft Window, Intel bluffed?

The game has changed; Nokia is going the Microsoft way it has decided. Meego has been almost abandoned by Nokia. 

The Meego, an operating platform for Nokia Symbian was at one time considered a big development for Nokia, and huge expectations were laid on the software being made by Intel and Nokia in a joint venture.

Rumors were afloat since long that Nokia would take this step, but the surprising part is Intel who is Nokia’s partner on Meego was unaware that the world’s largest phone maker by volume could take such an extreme step without taking them into confidence. 

Nokia’s market share was falling continuously because of the increasing severity of the battle for the smartphones segment, to counter these falling numbers it had planned a smartphone in collaboration with Intel last year. At that time this venture was considered a mighty deal.

But Meego did not sprinkle the magic it was supposed to, it failed terribly in front of rivals like Apple’s Macintosh, Google’s Android and HP’s WebOS. All these tablets raced ahead of Nokia, and carved a niche for themselves, Nokia’s symbian all the time just observed from the sidelines.

Nokia in such a case had to take a detour even if it meant bluffing Intel it seems. The future of Nokia seemed to be dark if it resided with Meego and did not soon opt for a change. Investors were losing faith and Nokia’s shares were falling drastically. In fact when rumors of Nokia taking Microsoft Windows 7 abyss came to surface, its shares saw a slight revival.

Intel in turn was pinning hope to this deal to get a head start of inserting their chip into smartphones, tablets and other types of converged devices and create a market for them, beating rival Nvidia who leads this particular segment by specially designed chips for these portable and smart devices. But Intel’s smartphone dreams got shattered with Nokia’s marginalization of the Meego.

Nokia in a way cheated on Intel but looking at the firms deteriorating condition, probably it did not have much choice. The only relief they could have provided Intel was to let them know about their intentions.

After all it is said Honesty is the best policy, but then cynics would say “Who’s honest in this era of cut throat competition.”