At the moment it is nothing more than an unconfirmed rumour but it seems that Intel is to stop development on MeeGo. MeeGo was a partnership between Intel and Nokia. The main reason for the partnership was to help Intel with the adoption of their mobile processors (Intel Atom) as ARM has been the dominant CPU for device manufacturers. ARM, a little company from Britain has given the big corporate (Intel) a few headaches. Intel I believe thought that Nokia would choose the MeeGo platform for their top of the line smart phones. In all honesty the concept was a good idea but it was doomed from the...

In one of the biggest stories of 2011, HP decided to “retire” WebOS. It seems the lack of sales of WebOS devices was the primary reason for this. I suspect that Googorola is potentially adding to the equation as manufacturers are looking at strengthening their own offer to consumers. The rumour mill has already starting churning possible new owners for WebOS.  Apple and Google are not even added to the conversation as they already dominate in the mobile space. So who are the candidates to buy WebOS? Facebook could be a fit. Mark Zuckerberg’s pride & joy could acquire WebOS. They have the...

Remember a few months ago when Stephen Elop wrote that masterful letter to his fellow Nokia staff members in which he speaks of them as being a burning platform? I do and at the time I thought it was a brilliant piece of leadership used by Elop to motivate his staff. However as time goes on I am beginning to think that this might go down as one of the greatest pieces of Astroturfing ever. For those not familiar with astroturfing it is “the artificial creation of a grassroots buzz for a product, service or political viewpoint.” Let me explain.. Regular readers will be aware of my...

I am currently reading Paul Allen’s Idea Man. The book provides a very interesting look at the formation of Microsoft. Don’t worry I am not going to spoil it for others in terms of the story line.  I will say that it does paint a very different picture about Microsoft and in particular Bill Gates, to what I expected. One thing that the book has brought home to me, is the tremendous impact Microsoft has on the computer industry. Whether you want to admit it or not, most users use at least one Microsoft product per day. Microsoft Office which contains Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook is arguably...

Nokia has launched the successor to the somewhat successful N8. Nokia has had a tough 2011. It has seen a lot of bad press, rumours of an acquisition by Microsoft of their mobile unit and the termination of their flagship software Symbian. The N9 has launched with a bit of controversy as well. The Initial specifications had an element of secrecy to it as the operating system was barely mentioned by Nokia. I believe the reason for this is that opinion leaders in the cellphone industry thought this could be the first Nokia phone featuring Windows Phone 7 as the primary operating system. Since the...