MeeGo Preview Shows Why Nokia Embraced WP7
Today at Mobile World Congress, Intel previewed MeeGo, which it jointly developed with Nokia MeeGo is a merger of Intels Moblin and Nokias Maemo projects and the early impressions fromseveral blogs paint the picture of an OS that is still an immature alpha platform: some say that it has barely improved outwardly since last Junes preview at Computex. Now mind you, this is an early developer look at the software running on an ExoPC slate. But most who saw it said MeeGo is far behind in the game, perhaps so much so that Nokia had little choice but to look elsewhere.Engadget said of the OS:
[I]ts actually rather shocking how little seems to have been improved since June. Intel claims the software is now in an Alpha stage (it was in pre-Alpha at Computex), though were not even sure it is that. The live updating pane interface, which reminds us a bit of the webOS cards, is certainly a neat idea and its actually decently attractive, but its when you start to dig in deep that the glitches and the lack of applicati! ons Inte ls got at the moment become very apparent.
Meanwhile, IntoMobile weighed in and came away similarly unimpressed:
The IntelMeeGo tablet UI was slow, buggy and you could even still see the cursor as the input method. There was no fluidity in the movements and interactions and the layout didnt necessarily get me to the stuff I wanted in a quicker way.This is an amazing disappointment really, as Intel and Nokia have been working on the MeeGooperating system for at least a yearand it is still not even close to being ready for prime time.
The operating system relies on a sliding panels-based user interface, though many of the applications simply transport people out to a browser. The panels offer access to music, photos, applications, web video and friends, though the different parts cant be reordered or customized at this point. Tapping on the panels opens up full-screen applications, while long presses on items pull up a context menu, something more familiar from PC platforms. The Chromium-based browser doesnt have pinch-to-zoom though it apparently does offer cut-and-paste capabilities.
Taking a contrarian approach, Laptop Magazine is more positive about the MeeGo tablet experience, saying it shows some early promise:
Weve enjoyed playing with MeeGo on netbooks, but we think we may like it even better on tablets. The panel interface has a lot of potential if both Intel and third party developers build on the promising features we saw this week.
But AnandTech summed it up well saying Intels aspirations fall seriously short of what competitors are putting out right now.
If Android is the target, MeeGo needs to make a great d! eal of p rogress in a relatively short period of time. These consumer facing smartphone/tablet OSes have to be ridiculously polished, they need to make mechanical toasters look difficult to use, and MeeGo just isnt there yet.
It sounds like Intel, however, is still very much committed to MeeGo. Our decision and resolve on MeeGo is only stronger, said Renee James, senior vice president and general manager of Intels Software and Services Group on Monday.Even as Nokia shoves MeeGo aside with an experimental label, Intel has few options but to be patient with MeeGo and hope it can mature quickly. It doesnt have many other ways to break into the mobile game because few manufacturers are looking at Intels hardware. Nokia has said it is looking at deploying MeeGo onautomotive systems, netbooks, tablets, set-top boxes and other devices. But the problem for Intel is its unclear when MeeG0 will be really ready for a wide deployment.
Compared to the polished look of Android 3.0 tablets, RIMs PlayBook and HPs Touchpad using webOS, its hard to see how MeeGo can catch up this year. And thats not even counting the high bar set by iOS. Theres still a chance down the road that MeeGo can evolve into a competitor, but Nokia clearly couldnt wait that long. Elop wrote in his now famous burning platform memo that there might only be one MeeGo device ready to go this year. Thats been the major problem for Nokia recently: it just cant seem to deliver new products with any urgency. Now after looking at the improvements in MeeGo, its becoming more apparent why Nokia felt time had run out on MeeGo. Now its up to Intel to keep! the dre am alive, but at this pace, it could take a while.
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