Former Nokia employees start company to build new MeeGo devices

A new startup called Jolla aims to resurrect the defunct MeeGo software platform and bring it to market on new handsets. The company, which was founded largely by former Nokia employees, says that it wants to pick up where the failing Finnish phone giant left off.

MeeGo was a Linux-based mobile platform developed jointly by Intel and Nokia after they combined their Moblin and Maemo projects. MeeGo had the potential to deliver an upstream-aligned mobile stack that was truly open and vendor neutral. But the endeavor fell apart when Nokia’s commitment wavered.

The N9 smartphone was the only device that Nokia shipped with MeeGo. It paired gorgeous hardware design with a powerful operating system and a modern user interface. It was a breakthrough device that had the potential to restore Nokia’s standing as a serious contender in the smartphone market.

But shortly before the N9 was released, Nokia’s new CEO decided to gut the company’s platform strategy in favor of adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. Nokia’s first and last MeeGo smartphone was effectively dead on arrival.

Although the N9 was never given an opportunity to succeed, it was an impressive device that was widely praised by reviewers. The N9’s hybrid of MeeGo and Harmattan was the culmination of seven years of research and development that began with the original 770 Internet Tablet.

Instead of letting all that hard work go to waste, Jolla is going to put it to use in new products. Because so much of MeeGo is open source software, Jolla can take advantage of Nokia’s sunk investment and use it as a starting point.

“Nokia created something wonderful–the world’s best smartphone product,“ said Jolla CEO Jussi Hurmola referring to the N9 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 intends to work closely with the Mer project, an independent community-driven effort to continue advancing MeeGo. Jolla will also use Qt.

It may seem far-fetched for a small startup to try to compete with the mobile platform powerhouses created by tech giants like Apple and Google, but Jolla’s plan isn’t as crazy as it might look. Intel and Nokia put a lot of resources into MeeGo before pulling the plug. MeeGo is already a fairly mature platform with a devoted community of third-party application developers.

Dusting off MeeGo and putting it on a decent handset could result in a fairly compelling product that would appeal to a niche audience of mobile power-users. With the right partners to help build a real ecosystem around the platform, there is a chance that it could hold its own.

Jolla says that it has already attracted private investors to fund its efforts. The company plans to unveil a new MeeGo-based smartphone later this year.

Listing image by Photograph by Ryan Abel