MeeGo to be reincarnated by ex-Nokia employees

MeeGo to be reincarnated by ex-Nokia employees
MeeGo only made it onto the Nokia N9 first time round

A group of former Nokia employees have come together to form Jolla in a bid to revive the doomed MeeGo operating system.

MeeGo, a joint venture between Intel, Nokia and Samsung, had a short and sorry life, pronounced dead before it even ventured onto its first (and only) handset, the Nokia N9, but it looks as though it may get a second chance.

The official Jolla Twitter account bio reads; "Jolla continues Nokia's excellent work on #MeeGo based smartphones together with the #N9 core professionals and #MeeGo community alumni."

"Worlds best smartphone product"

On the Jolla LinkedIn page, the collective states: "Nokia created something wonderful - the world's best smartphone product.

"It deserves to be continued, and we will do that together with all the bright and gifted people contributing to the MeeGo success story."

It looks like Jolla's first objective is to spread the MeeGo word, as it's planning to open a website and Facebook page soon to complement its growing Twitter following (almost 6,000 at time of writing).

MeeGo to challenge inbred relative Tizen?

The Linux-based MeeGo OS was initially developed by Nokia as a rival to Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms, but the project was ditched and the Finnish firm then signed a deal with Microsoft to use Windows Phone.

Samsung decided to take on parts of MeeGo, as it created a new OS in partnership with Intel known as Tizen, which could be the main rival for Jolla to contend with.

It's still very much early doors for the Jolla team, and we're not sure if there's enough space in the market for another OS to make significant waves, but MeeGo was a promising offering so we'll be watching eith interest.

From Jolla Twitter and Jolla LinkedIn via MyNokiaBlog

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John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.