Instead, Intel will focus on Tizen, an open-source Linux build being developped with Samsung. Like MeeGo, a hybrid of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo, Tizen is hosted by the Linux Foundation. At the Tizen Project website, its founders say to expect the first release of Tizen to hit the market in the first quarter of 2012.
"Why not just evolve MeeGo?" wrote Imad Sousou, director of the Intel Open Source Technology Center, in a blog post. "We believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5. Shifting to HTML5 doesn't just mean slapping a Web runtime on an existing Linux, even one aimed at mobile, as MeeGo has been."
Sousou added that Intel will work with current MeeGo users and developers to transition to Tizen.
The announcement comes just one day after Nokia announced it has begun shipping the Nokia N9, rumored to be Nokia's last MeeGo-based smartphone. The Nokia N9 features a 3.9-inch AMOLED screen made from scratch-resistant curved glass, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera and HD-quality video capture, a near-field communication (NFC) chip, and no buttons. For more, see our hands-on with the Nokia N9 and slideshow below.
Nokia announced the N9 in June, just one day before CEO Stephen Elop stole its thunder somewhat by teasing the first Nokia Windows Phone device codenamed "Sea Ray." Days later Elop reportedly said he planned to kill off MeeGo even if the N9 was popular. Ever since strategically adopting Microsoft's Windows Phone OS back in February, Nokia has been devoting all its attention and support to developing Windows Phone devices, although it hasn't officially abandoned MeeGo.
Some speculate that MeeGo will go up for sale and get snapped up by either Samsung or HTC. Or perhaps we'll see it integrated in tablets as promised by four small OS vendors back in May.