Meltemi - new mobile OS by Nokia for low-end phones

vsorokin

Nokia Corp., having abandoned its ambition to develop a high-end operating system, is shifting its programming efforts toward creating software for its low-end phones, according to people familiar with the matter.

The project is a Linux-based operating system code-named Meltemi, the Greek word for dry summer winds that blow across the Aegean Sea from the north. It is being led by Mary McDowell, the handset maker's executive vice president in charge of mobile phones, these people say.

"WSJ":http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203405504576599011587667984.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

lgeyer

Nokia basically dumped MeeGo resp. Maemo which was as stable to release a real product just to create another Linux based OS, obviously competing with former MeeGo now Tizen.

"Well done.":http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/facepalm. Another "3500+":http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/29/oh-nokia-another-3500-people-laid-off-manufacturing-operations-trimmed-down/ people say thank you.

leon.anavi

This is an interesting rumor but as we all know the road from rumors to a stable OS for the mass market is long and thorny.

mario

Harmattan is quite stable. Look at the spec for S40, 1 GHz etc... That's in par with N9

Make the hw with less expensive components and smaller screen size etc and you have a low-end smartphone device.

L.MCH

I've heard other developers describing Harmattan as a "Meego-compatible Maemo", I guess Meltemi will be the next release of Maemo under a different name.
It looks like Maemo or its evolution will become "Nokia's Bada, with Qt".
It can work if they sell enough phones to attract enough third party developers.

srikanth_trulyit

I think they will target Meltemi to fill the Symbian space. That is a very lucrative market. These days any one can make a Linux based OS, but I would expect Nokia not to repeat any mistakes it (may or may not) made with Meego/Maemo. Qt, Linux, low price point - a perfect recipe for success.

Iktwo

I hope it will be like maemo, N900 is such a great device, so low end phones with great software would be an interesting thing to see

PierreChicoine

The evolution is simple Maemo becomes Meego and Meego becomes Meltemi. They use the same underlying stuff based on Qt. I'm happy to see this, it explains why Nokia is still hiring people on the Qt team. Since I use Qt extensively it's a happy thought.

mario

Just got this on twitter :)

"http://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qtsensors/blobs/f2bd56289283900cd1dcf2c52b93952f98e45144/src/sensors/qirproximitysensor.cpp":http://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qtsensors/blobs/f2bd56289283900cd1dcf2c52b93952f98e45144/src/sensors/qirproximitysensor.cpp

Check the line "This file is part of the QtSensors middleware for ..." Oops! :)

leon.anavi

[quote author="mario" date="1332334424"]Check the line "This file is part of the QtSensors middleware for ..." Oops! :)[/quote]

Wow :) That's great, thanks for sharing! Finally good news about Qt from Nokia!

mario

The bad news is that the commit is from "Tuesday September 06 2011". A lot can have happened since. Cross your fingers :)

The git log seems to been manipulated though, this commit doesn't exist in the history when browsing

jaak

Please see this link

"http://nokiagadgets.com/2012/02/26/konttori-is-back-confirms-meltemi-pr1-2-improves-camera-a-lot-on-n9/":http://nokiagadgets.com/2012/02/26/konttori-is-back-confirms-meltemi-pr1-2-improves-camera-a-lot-on-n9/

This should be for the next billion thing and according to official info Qt should run on next billion

leon.anavi

Just found out a couple of interesting articles about Nokia N9, Nokia next billion plan and Meltemi:
"Why is Nokia Still Working on MeeGo?":http://www.netbooknews.com/47198/why-is-nokia-still-working-on-meego/
"Nokia working on Two New low end MeeGo Smartphones":http://www.netbooknews.com/47197/nokia-working-on-two-new-low-end-meego-smartphones/

john_god

Meltemi is the name of a wind.
For sure it's a well chosen name. Time passes by, and like the wind, we don't see nothing... where are you Meltemi ? :)

jaak

I guess the announcements regarding meltemi should coincide with the release of Qt 5.0.

andre

It sounds unlikely to me that Meleti would be based on Qt 5. Meleti has, if the rumours are true, been in development for awhile now. Qt 5.0 has only just reached a sort-of feature complete state. No one in his right mind will base something they want to launch on an unstable platform like Qt 5 is at this moment.

So: I don't see the connection between the two.

jaak

I don't know how stable Qt 5.0 is. I have read that Qt 5.0 will be released sometime this year. There are rumors that meltemi based phones will be released later this year. Symbian don't support Qt 5.0. Then what else ? I just thought, may be Qt 5.0 should be supported on Meltemi.

leon.anavi

[quote author="leon.anavi" date="1317306632"]This is an interesting rumor but as we all know the road from rumors to a stable OS for the mass market is long and thorny.[/quote]

It seems that "Meltemi won't make it to the mass market":https://twitter.com/nkaratt/status/213202227379179520 after "the recently announced job cuts in Nokia":http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-14/nokia-to-cut-10-000-jobs-as-elop-tries-to-stanch-losses.html.