Nokia & Microsoft Get In Bed, Qt & MeeGo Take A Back

As many were expecting, Nokia and Microsoft this morning announced a strategic partnership under which Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will become Nokia's primary smart-phone platform. With this move, it really darkens the outlook for the MeeGo Linux platform. Additionally, on Nokia's Windows Phone 7 implementation, their Qt tool-kit will not be available.

Nokia will still toy around with MeeGo, but they won't be deploying product lines with MeeGo. It looks like there may be one MeeGo-based product being released from Nokia this year. In this large strategic partnership, many Nokia employees will also be losing their jobs as part of a corporate re-organization. Nokia obviously has employed many Linux / open-source developers as part of their work on MeeGo, formerly Maemo, Qt, X, and other components. Some of these known developers will be on their way out the door at Nokia. One of my Linux Nokia sources says many of these developers will be affected and "I doubt that I will be doing Nokia stuff after June", etc.

While Intel puts out their MeeGo spin for netbooks and other Atom-powered devices, Nokia was the other big name associated with MeeGo. The Symbian platform is also effectively killed off in this move.

Read more about the new Microsoft-Nokia deal at The Wall Street Journal or Forbes.