Nokia X + Meego

Analysing Nokia’s X series can make the head swell and burst. So many factors come into play and you wonder why some decisions were made in the first place. But there is something that hasn’t been mentioned yet when discussing the X series and one that would have avoided the craze. Many people may have forgotten about the discarded Nokia operating system called Meego but somehow it all goes back to it.

You see the reason why Nokia X phones exist, at least according to Nokia, is the ability to push prices down while having access to many apps. However much Nokia sugar coats it, I believe this has less to do with apps given there is no Playstore out of the box and you must rely on third party stores. It’s probably because Windows Phone is still incomplete and license fees may be a bit high. If apps are to go by, the current situation is more than adequate for the target audience. I mean how many apps do you install on a Galaxy pocket? In any case some apps cause slow downs on such phones hence you are limited to the basic apps. People who use more apps tend to go for more capable high/mid range phones and that is not the case with the Nokia X series. So where does Meego come in?

Ideally, Meego was supposed to be a high end OS. However these were the days Nokia smartphones ran on 128mb ram with 500MHz processors while high end was considered to be 1GHz. The incredible Nokia N9 ran on 1GHz although it was paired with 1GB ram. Every N9 user will tell you how the phone was fluid and there was never a hiccup. Fast forward to today and low end devices run on dual core processors including the best selling Lumia 520 and newly introduced Nokia X series. And if there is one thing Nokia is good at then that is optimising an operating system to support low end devices. I bet Meego would be flawless on the X series and I am not getting ahead of myself or anything but they would be worth midrange status.

Considering the small matter of apps Meego is linux based and so is Android. If apps were lacking in the hypothetical meego store then it wouldn’t have been that difficult to port Android apps on Meego just like developers ported apps from WebOS. In any case Nokia is currently doing the same process porting Android apps to their store for the Nokia X (removing Google services and replacing with Microsoft) and this is a process that takes a few hours to one full day.

Meego was considerably more stable and lighter than android. Meego was also an in house project meaning prices would be as low as Nokia X series prices. If the Meego idea seems too ambitious then there was also a cheaper OS called Meltemi which never saw the light of day. It was supposed to revamp the Asha series since meltemi is a mix of Nokia’s series 40 and Linux. But let’s give Nokia X phones a chance and see how it turns out. However, you can’t stop wondering about what could have been. Just maybe Nokia would still have their reputation and more importantly dignity.

Meego Resurrects

The fan boys and tech expert reserved the best OS position to the dead and gone Linux based Meego. It may have bowed out on a high but people expected more. The much awaited Meego handset came from Nokia and they called the OS running on it Meego Harmattan. Never mind the name, Meego was loved by all. The N9 turned out to be the only Meego phone to hit the markets. There was the N950 with a physical QWERTY keyboard but it headed straight to the developer community. Then came the big blow, Nokia decided to abandon the promising OS and even the apple and android fans who were hoping for something new lost hope. But just last week there has emerged a new lifeline. The ex-Meego team will continue with the Meego work and may or may not call it Jolla.

Nokia N9 with Meego

So what does this mean? It means lots of things. The fans have a reason to be hopeful once more but at the same time they shouldn’t raise their hopes too high.

The positives are that the “evil” Nokia won’t be the one controlling the project and by the looks of the situation the Jolla project is headed by determined fellows. These are people who probably know about how people feel about Meego. Expect the resulting OS to be better than the current Meego Harmattan. Expect it to integrate more features out of the box and expect it to be crazy given the line between Android, Meego and Maemo and of course WebOS is very thin. Also, expect updates to come your way. What I’m not so sure about is apps. Meego has few apps and the best way would be to make Jolla backward compatible with the current Meego apps and if it won’t be a pain Maemo 5 apps. Really, if you think about it the future has never looked brighter.

Nokia N950 (right) alongside Nokia N900

As much as things seem like a fairytale there are a few concerns that might be a deal breaker. Jolla is an independent company. That’s a good thing but they don’t make handsets, or if they do I’ve never heard of any Jolla handsets before. T hat calls for a painful partnership with a manufacturer like Nokia. Nokia have shown much support and may be the preferred device maker. Nokia make great hardware but how timely will these handsets be? I am basing my argument on the fact that Nokia have perfected the art of arriving late to the party. Also, how ready is Nokia to make devices for an OS it decided to abandon?

N950 with physical QWERTY

A solution to this would be for Jolla to act like Google and get many manufacturers under their wing. Let them just refine the OS and give it to manufacturers to house it in powerful hardware. We know for sure Samsung are interested in Meego and have their version of the OS called Tizen. If Jolla turns out to be better Samsung might pick it up the same way they picked Android instead of Bada. So now it’s all up to the Jolla team.

Jolla may just be what Symbian fan boys are waiting for. Symbian is practically dead and the alternative which is Windows Phone may not appeal to many given the many limitations it still has. Given Meego was a complete OS, the Jolla team may have little to do and just work on adding apps by convincing major app developers like Gameloft that there is a future. All people wanted was the N9 with lots of apps.

Only time will tell how Jolla will turn out to be. I wish the team all the best and am looking forward to how things turn out.

~Eddy