Nokia creates yet another mobile Linux OS
These days, it is not only a high end smartphone which needs a full OS, but featurephone platforms are taking on more advanced functionality too. Java, Brew and increasingly Android play here, and now Nokia is reported to be developing its own platform, Meltemi to replace its Series 40.
The low end strand of WP7, Tango, is in the wings, but Nokia‘s initial WP7 products will be high end. In the meantime, S40 is hugely installed but created for an age before the mobile web – and Nokia needs to consolidate its market share at the low end by adding value and providing a better user experience than the ultra-low cost competitors from China and Taiwan. Nokia has seen erosion of its admittedly huge share in key markets like India and China, as brands like Samsung and ZTE gain ground and as some featurephone users migrate to low cost smart devices running Android.
Nokia has a strategy to push WP7 into that affordable smartphone space, using the recently announced Tango variant for low end hardware, but that will not be a short term possibility in the mass market. In the meantime, it is devising Meltemi (the Greek word for summer winds) to add functionality for the base covered by its existing Series 40 software platform. According to The Wall Street Journal, the new initiative is led by EVP Mary McDowell, who heads the mobile phone business, although Nokia did not officially comment. It would only say: “Our mobile phones team has a number of exciting projects in the works that will help connect the next billion consumers to the internet.”
Featurephones accounted for about 47% of Nokia‘s device sales during the second quarter and CEO Stephen Elop announced a strategy to strengthen the attack on emerging markets and on Android. Like other OEMs, Nokia has effectively called the death of the traditional featurephone, except in some sub-$20 niches whose margins are too low even for the efficient Finnish giant. Instead, the low cost market will be based on semi-smart devices running Android, Java, Qualcomm Brew, and various flavors of Linux, which Nokia hopes will include Meltemi.