Nokia: there's still hope for MeeGo yet
Elop's death-knell comments misinterpreted?
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop's comments about the Nokia N9 being the last MeeGo phone may have been misinterpreted, according to a statement sent to TechRadar.
The Nokia N9 was recently announced with mostly positive first impressions, but according to Finnish site MTV3, Elop 'confirmed' that it would be the last MeeGo phone as the company looks to a new Windows Phone/Symbian era - although he was never directly quoted by the site.
Game over, or game on?
We spoke to Nokia to clarify the situation, and received the following response:
"Our primary smartphone platform will be Windows Phone – we have been very clear on this point – this is where we will be focusing our energies and resources as we go forward.
"Having said that, many of the innovations seen in the new N9 will be utilised in future Nokia products and we're excited about that and about what the N9 has brought us so far."
We realise that the statement is hugely open to interpretation - 'many of the innovations seen in the new N9' could range from the new MeeGo OS in its entirety to its triple homescreen layout or clever NFC Bluetooth pairing,
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Whatever the plans are now, it's likely that Nokia won't give up on a strong consumer product if the N9 gets the traction the early signs are suggesting it might - so perhaps we haven't seen the last of MeeGo after all.
Check out our in-depth look at the new Nokia N9 phone - it could be the last time we'll ever see the poor little OS in action:
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.