BARCELONA - Intel on Monday said it was "disappointed" by Nokia's decision to abandon MeeGo in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, but pledged to forge ahead with the platform, releasing to developers what it called the MeeGo tablet experience.
Intel also provided a sneak peek at Medfield, its chip for smartphones.
"Intel is disappointed with Nokia's decision," Renée J. James, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Software and Services Group, said here at Mobile World Congress, "but life goes on."
"Our decision and resolve on MeeGo is only stronger," she continued.
It was only last year that Intel and Nokia were onstage here at MWC to announce that they would merge their Moblin and Maemo platforms into one software platform - MeeGo. Last week, however, Nokia announced that it will pursue a long-term relationship with Microsoft, and make the Windows Phone 7 operating system the foundation for Nokia mobile phones.
In a separate interview with PCMag, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said he understands why Intel is disappointed.
"I have spoken to [Intel CEO] Paul Otellini multiple times; he knew we were going through a decision-making process [and] he expressed his disappointment," Elop said.
"I'm meeting with him and his team tomorrow to talk about next steps [and] how do we evolve [the Nokia-Intel relationship]," Elop continued. "You're going to see a bunch of highly exciting MeeGo announcements today."
Doug Fisher, vice president of systems software at Intel, provided a quick glimpse of the MeeGo experience on a tablet. He said the platform is "centralized around the user" rather than apps. Instead of the standard grid-centered homepage, MeeGo will have a "panel view" featuring panes with most-used apps, as well as a "My Friends" section that pulls in social-networking feeds. MeeGo "learns as you use it," Fisher said, putting the most important things up top.
Fisher also showed off an "object-oriented" feature, which is sort of like a right-click for tablets, he said. Tap the screen and a menu will appear with options like forward to a friend (for a photo, for example) or adding favorites.
"We're going forward with MeeGo," James said. MeeGo tablets will be shipping this year based on Intel Atom technology, she said.
Intel also provided a quick glimpse of Medfield, Intel's 32nm chip for smartphones that the company has been discussing for quite some time. Quick glimpse, however, means they held it up next to a Moorestown chip, but provided few other details. Intel said it is sampling Medfield with customers and will ship smartphones with Medfield in the future, but did not provide an exact date.
Executives also announced an Intel partnership with Korea Telecom and Samsung for LTE-based devices. The companies demonstrated the first live-air LTE solution based on cloud communication center (CCC) network technology here at MWC. They also plan an LTE trial test in the third quarter in South Korea.
Sascha Segan contributed to this report.