Two sources close to Nokia have confirmed today the cancellation of the company's first MeeGo-based mobile phone, Yahoo is reporting. Following yesterday's leak of a memo from CEO Stephen Elop, where he referred to Nokia as "standing on a burning platform", the internet has been buzzing with talk that Elop is planning to make big changes to the Finnish company. Elop's revolution is making itself public at a time when speculation that Nokia is preparing to switch to Windows Phone 7 is making the rounds on tech blogs, giving the rumours more and more credibility.
Canalys analyst Tim Shepherd believes the move could be justified, despite Nokia's investments into the platform. "Frankly, Nokia has to decide whether maintaining MeeGo is of strategic value in the short or longer term. If it believes MeeGo will not deliver value, it should divert resources elsewhere," he said. Shepherd pointed out that Elop has no "emotional attachment" to any platforms, so a change of platform that would benefit the business would not be too difficult for him.
MeeGo was first announced in February last year as a joint venture between Nokia and Intel. The aim of the project was to merge Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo into a single product. While MeeGo has a long number of possible applications, the fact that one of its developers is not confident enough to install it on their phones is a worrying sign. Nonetheless, MeeGo has a long list of supporters, so it's unlikely to die overnight even if Nokia withdrew entirely from the project.
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