Mobile phones are inseparable part of our lives now. People not just want a basic mobile phone, rather everyone needs or wants a smartphone these days. And why not, smartphone are now in reach of everyone due to a lot of smartphone making companies competing with each other to capture highest market share, thus making them available in lowest price range.
Recently, Android emerged as one of the most preferred OS for smartphones & gained huge market share within a very short span. No doubt it is an awesome product giving new standards to mobile computing. So, its not an odd thing if you envy the latest Android phone out in the market.
If you are unsure what Android is all about, it is a Linux based operating system developed by Google for mobile devices & was first product of Open Handset Alliance, a business alliance formed by some big companies to develop open standards for mobile devices. Android is free & open source, & is being adopted by a lot of mobile phone manufacturers for their smartphones. Being developed by Google, it obviously supports all the Google services & offers great integration with Google products.
Nokia was developing its own Linux based OS called Maemo & launched a phone N900 powered by Maemo. Intel also started developing a Linux based mobile OS called Moblin. But with the advent of 2010, Nokia & Intel joined their hands & merged their respective Maemo & Moblin to create a new OS named MeeGo. It is also open source. Nokia has revealed that MeeGo will be the preferred OS for its future smartphones with MeeGo powered handsets expected to be launched in first half of 2011.
Both Android & MeeGo are highly competitive products based on Linux platform & targeting the same kind of gadgets. The deciding factor will be the extras you get with them. However there are a plenty of reasons why MeeGo along with Nokia can provide a high performance, feature rich, value for money device which you can use without feeling outdated for a decent period of time.
Following are the 10 reasons why MeeGo powered Nokia phone can outrun any Android powered phone:
- Ovi Services: Nokia started Ovi services in 2007 which have now become most used services due to the largest share of Nokia in the smartphone market. The beauty of Ovi services is that some of the most useful Ovi services are free. For example, Nokia provides navigation services for free in the name of Ovi Maps which are, though not very detailed but much more accurate than Google Maps. MeeGo will offer all the Ovi services when powering a Nokia device thus giving you best services for free. With Android, you cannot get Ovi servies as Nokia has clearly mentioned that there will be no Android powered Nokia phone.
- Ovi Suit: Another innovation by Nokia is Ovi Suite which is actually a single software aimed to provide a common PC software for all the Nokia mobiles. You just need to install Ovi Suit on your PC & you can sync & control any Nokia device connected to your PC. MeeGo on Nokia will too support Ovi Suit. Every household these days tend to have atleast one Nokia smartphone & thus it will save you from the hassles of installing different PC suits for different phones.
- Because its Nokia: It is no doubt that Nokia is the most reliable & largest mobile manufacturer in the world with the largest share in smartphones market. A Nokia lover who want a Linux powered Nokia smartphone but has to buy alternatives due to its unavailability, will soon find many Linux (MeeGo) powered Nokia smartphones in market. This will surely give Nokia big advantage over Android powered phones.
- Your phone will never get old: Anyone who owns a Nokia smartphone knows how easy is to get latest features including services on your phone by just running a simple software update yourself. Its true that it is the case with every mobile company but due the largest user base, the updates are much more frequent & effective than the other mobile phones. Also, Ovi suit makes the upgrade process so easy.
- Better feature compatibility: Being a Nokia product, MeeGo is bound to give the best performance with Nokia hardware just as the Mac OSX works best on a Mac or Blackberry OS works best on RIM’s Blackberry smartphones.
- Because its Intel: MeeGo may prove more efficient than Android for Intel processors as it is being developed by Intel to specifically overcome the Windows Mobile disability to support Atom processor. Intel is pioneer of so many technologies & we can expect a revolutionizing OS from them in the name of MeeGo.
- Hardware Acceleration to a new level: With Spice launching the world’s first 3D phone, we can expect new graphics accelerated phones from other manufacturers which can take mobile graphics to new levels with Intel providing best graphics integrated processors. These combined with Nokia devices can do big wonders.
- Because it has two App Stores: Being a combined product of Nokia & Intel , both the giants have setup separate App Stores for MeeGo. Intel has launched its own Intel App Store for Intel based MeeGo products & Nokia already has Ovi store which will feature Apps for MeeGo powered Nokia devices. This gives users double chance of getting their favourite app. What if Nokia launches a MeeGo powered phone with Intel processor? Obviously, a win-win scenario for developers & users.
- Because it is Qt application & UI framework compatible: Qt is a cross-platform GUI based application framework which is used by many big products including VLC Media player, Google Earth, Adobe Photoshop etc. This compatibility means even larger availability of apps for MeeGo. Developers have to write an application only once & they can port it to a variety of Qt compatible platforms including Symbion OS. The reverse can also be true resulting in more & more apps.
- Finally, its good to be late: Its not always the case that pioneer of a technology wins. If implemented properly & efficiently, an already existing idea can be made highly successful. Similarly in this case, Android’s appearance as first Linux based mobile OS has shown the various opportunities for such platforms. The biggest advantage Nokia has is its already largest share in smartphone market which makes it obvious choice for those who rely on Nokia & want an Android like platform. Nokia has the chance to develop a better interface than Android & optimizing MeeGo for better support with its phones than the other smartphone manufacturers using Android.
Conclusion: Though without having a MeeGo powered phone in hands, its not easy to compare it with Android. But its easy to speculate the possibilities of MeeGo being developed by smartphone & chip giants. Android being a very good OS may find difficult to capture Nokia’s already occupied smartphone market after MeeGo enters the market. The users may have faith in Android as a good software platform, but when it comes to hardware, Nokia still wins the race.
Update: If you want to buy an Android phone now & cant wait for MeeGo, there is a very good Android Phone Buying Guide by Kunal Dharamsi.
When i read back my views, I find a lot of grammatical mistakes… was in a hurry! Please ignore them! 😀
The Android vs MeeGO battle would be very interesting!
I agree with Kunal.
I support android for what it has becum..
i hav an android phone samsung galaxy 3 and it has 2.1
Upgrade to 2.2 coming in a month..
I dont think nokia wil ever b able to achieve what android has.
Symbian OS is open source (check their website)
It does not appear to be so.
Do u think nokia wil be able to keep up with MeeGo?
My sister has an N97 mini and that phone just sucks!
its d worat phone i have ever seen
the ovi maps i have used is really inaccurate n u turn up 4000 mtrs from where u actually are. This does not happen on my android!
My sisters frnd has an n8 and its camera is just great! but rest of d phone sucks n hangs up randomly while reading SMSes!
I completely agree with abhineet. You can’t find a better smartphone or even a cameraphone which is smart too than nokia’s phones like Nokia 5230, nokia C5, nokia C6-01 and the camera department leader Nokia N8.
I am completely agreed with Abhineet but kunal at its point of view is also correct.
But that’s the very true fact that still their are huge number of people which prefers only “NOKIA”….with straight words that no other brand will be entertained.
They still don’t want to just have a look at Samsung, Motorola,….
Well, people are getting used to android and starting to love it…. Daily 2 lacs Android devices are being activated…
We would have got a great competition if they launched together… Android has got too ahead in race…
And Google has got a far vision…. and is aware of the competition it might face…
Its launching Android 2.3 ( gingerbread )…. hopefully within a week!
Take a look at its confirmed features:
Support for WebM video playback
Improved copy–paste functionalities
Improved social networking features
Unconfirmed new features:
*Android Market music store
*Media streaming from PC library
*Revamped UI
*Support for bigger screens with up to Wide XGA (1366×768) resolution
*New 3D Games support including new Marketplace area for gaming
*Use of mksh for /system/bin/sh
*Support for video calls
*Support for WebP image files
*Support for Google TV
Also… Android 3.0 (honeycomb) is Scheduled for early 2011 launch…
A rumor( likely to come true)… Android 4.0 (ice cream) to be launched in mid-2011
_____
Till you get yourself a MeeGo powered mobile… Google would have launched 7th version of Android….(excluding 1.1)
U can understand that MeeGo can’t provide u with such exciting features is one shot!
_____
I agree that Nokia has got a good share…. but that share has become stable now.. or gradually falling…
Is it that all symbian phones would receive MeeGo update?
I dont think so…
People are turning to other brands…. and sales of other phones are quite better than Nokia…
People will have to buy new phones… for MeeGo.. isnt it?
When a large proportion of them would already have android phones… with android phones becoming as cheap as 6k… who will turn to MeeGo?
This would further pace Android development and its popularity…
And believe me too…. that at least 2-3 companies will say no to MeeGo too… Samsung has already closed own symbian phones that it produced.. and is quite interested in BADA and Android…
Android is the reason for comeback of motorola… and motorola droid sales exceeded iphone 4 sales…
so they will be too quite less in MeeGo… why will they switch from Android ( with huge number of apps… and great popularity) to MeeGo that time?
_____________________________________
Even if i agree with you that.. Qt framework would be loved by developers….
With Android proving to be such a “big market”(as i said.. daily 2 lacs android devices are being activated)…. they would be less interested in MeeGo… leading to more paid apps in comparison to free apps…
Google will be also quite aware of this and will work upon its framework… So developers would again turn to Google’s side…
_____________________________
MeeGo would be too late when it enters the market.. and people would hesitate to turn to it… with Android proving to be better than it (at least when MeeGo is launched, it wont overturn Android in one shot…)
_______________________________
Well… Android has not got many limitations…
Even MeeGo would have equal number of limitations when it is launched…
At the end of the day…the conclusion i draw is…. Nokia needed to wake-up a bit later…
and this release would prove to be very late for Nokia…
But Android and MeeGo combined together would be a huge competition to iOS….
_________________________________
Regarding the features you mentioned above, there is no reason why MeeGo cannot offer competitive features. Ofcourse MeeGo is expected to have cutting edge features like Android. Why not?
MeeGo is just a few months away from us & is compensating being late by providing some innovative features, one of them as Qt application & UI framework compatibility.
But you are getting away from the point. My point is not MeeGo vs Android, my point is “MeeGo + Nokia” vs “Android + Any brand” (Read the title of this post again). MeeGo with any non-Nokia phone is similar to Android & thus will compete equally (Android then will have only advantage of coming earlier in the market). But when combined with a Nokia phone offering Nokia specific features & services too, Android users will definitely miss the features provided by Nokia.
Regarding services, all Google services will be available on MeeGo also as they are platform independent. The only big feature of Android is that it is the only Linux based mobile OS currently & being first in its domain has grab huge attention. But when power users will find a Nokia phone with all the Android like features plus Nokia services, they will definitely prefer it.
By power users, I am referring to people who are more interested in features & efficiency rather than driven by brand value of any particular product.
Power users (which are increased these days a lot due to somewhat better technical awareness, thanks to blogging) are driven by better feature availability. MeeGo powered Nokia phone will definitely grab attention of power users as they will get much more features. However due to the status earned by Android, it could still share a good fan base.
1. Even Google maps are free… and i can bet its far better and accurate with so many additional features such as voice directions,etc.
2.No need of connecting an android phone to a PC… I t automatically syncs and backups everything! Its a PC in itself! If u wanna connect to internet from your mobile, then it has got tethering!!
3.Nokia has recently lost a large market share! There are other trusted brands like HTC, Motorola, Samsung… which are equally good! U can never say that Nokia is better than HTC or Motorola… Each one has its own class!
4. Even Google updates their Android software at a breakneck pace. An android phone keeps rocking!
5.Android is open-source and hence can be customized according to company’s needs providing more variety and competition….
6.As you said, “Its not always the case that pioneer of a technology wins.” Intel may be good in making processors fo dektops and laptops… but its a different case here! Qualcomm and texas rules!
Texas Instruments (found in many Nokia devices)
Qualcomm (famous for the Snapdragon which powers the Nexus One)
Samsung (famous for the iPhone)
Marvell (bought the Xscale business from Intel)
Freescale
Infineon (big in baseband processor, but that business was recently sold to Intel)
Intel of course is a player, but with no actual market share. They are trying to develop Atom processors towards the smartphone market. But I believe LG is the only OEM partner with a device that is close to market ready.
7. These combined with Android phones can do wonders too! Nokia is not an exception! check this out too : http://bit.ly/d8y8ws
8.Even the Android Market rocks! With more than 70,000 apps extending your mobile’s functionality, Android Market provides an easy access and quick installation of apps on one touch….
9. By the time Meego powered device will be in your hand, android market will have the maximum number of apps… that would take meego a great time to just come near the number of apps in android market!
10. Nokia had always been very poor at pricing… thats the main reason it lost its market share! If it would have got no comp. from others it would have priced N8 at 30-35k….
Android has and will always have greater variety and availability of phones! Android phones compete with each there to give best to public at a reasonable rate!
You have listed 10 reasons here… If i just google i may find many more reasons…. for android to be far better than Meego…. Android Rules!!
There are a few important points to be considered:
1. If you read above, I said that Android & MeeGo are very similar in implementation & scope. So, all the positives of Android are actually positives of MeeGo too. MeeGo can too be implemented on any mobile whether from Samsung, HTC etc. The big advantage with MeeGo is that it is being developed by a smartphone giant who has already got big share in smartphone market. So, its true that Android can be implemented on any phone except Nokia (as Nokia strictly announced that it will never launch any Android phone) but MeeGo can be implemented on every possible smartphone including Nokia.
2. Second big thing is Qt framework compatibility & believe me, it will work just like .Net technology in spreading App development for MeeGo.
3. Third thing is market share. Android has got market share because it has practically got no competitor as there is no Linux based OS like Android currently in market. But it would be very interesting to see the scenario after MeeGo comes into the picture.
4. Regarding Ovi Services, Google Navigation stands nothing in front of Navigation using Ovi Maps. I regularly use both to a great extent & the difference is huge. And of course, Google Maps are freely available for all the platforms, so Google Maps is not a supportive point of Android as you can use it on MeeGo too, but Ovi Maps can only be used on Nokia phones along with Google Maps.
5. Regarding price, Nokia’s C5 is a Symbian S60 smartphone in 7k range with awesome features including very good 3.2 MP camera, 3G support, front camera for video call & A-GPS which works fantastically. What better smartphone can u get at such price? Nokia launches phones at high prices but they are quite cheaper soon. High prices at launch are justified due to Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) Cost they spend in extensive research they do to make a good phone, so breakeven is needed before prices are dropped.
6. Finally, you said that Google can give me many reasons why Android is better. Ofcourse it can because MeeGo has not been publicized much till now & thus people know less about it & thus blogging less about it. Scene will be different in 2011.
I too like Google products for their innovations, but logically it seems that there are good chances of MeeGo to prove itself as a better option not because Android has any limitation, but due to the extras MeeGo has got to offer.
Good and easy to understand article.
It was educational for me too, since I am not into mobiles that much.
Its safe to that MeeGo can outrun Android because its been developed by Nokia and Intel, both giants in their respective fields. But Android being backed up by Google, there can be said nothing for sure.
But, its evident that after positive reviews from Samsung’s Bada platform, and others like MeeGo, Google is facing a serious competition in the mobile OS market.
But that just means win-win scenario for consumers, as they get more and better choices.