Nokia is allegedly working on two low-end MeeGo smartphones to help it with its "Next Billion" strategy, a revelation delivered by an industry insider working in a department of the company related directly to the upcoming products.

The "Next Billion" strategy basically boils down to Nokia retaining a leading role in delivering low-end cheap phones for the next one billion mobile subscribers, most of which will be in poor developing countries.

After Nokia LUMIA, The next billion project is mostly served by the Series 40/Asha department, but it seems that Android phones have managed to go down in price enough to threaten the Nokia positions in the low-end. The smartphone department where Windows Phone rules supreme cannot come down to the ultra low-end where feature phones lived for a number of reasons like WP not being supported on devices having less than 256MB of RAM.

The MeeGo way of handling multiple applications is so cool that it was always a matter of time before it found its way to other platforms. And iOS users are the first lucky ones who get to try it, thanks to a tweak created by a developer called chpwn.

The tweak called Zephyr lets you manage apps by pushing them away from the screen, just like you would on a Nokia N9. And the smoothness is all there too.

Video Demo Below!

There are some good news and some bad news for the MeeGo fans out there. The good news is that their platform is not dead, despite Nokia giving up on its development. The bad news is that MeeGo will have to go through another transformation in order to live on. So its so long to MeeGo, long live to Tizen.

Latest news is that Intel has finally found the partner it was looking for to help it shape MeeGo in Samsung. The Koreans will join Intel and The Linux Foundation in the development of Tizen a new open-source project, of which Meego will become a part of.

OpenMobile ACL should now be your go-to for apps on your MeeGo device. ACL stands for Application Compatibility Layer and it leverages both the runtime environment and the Dalvik Virtual Machine used by Android to allow support for 100% of the Android Market apps.

The video below shows a demonstration of the ACL running an x86 MeeGo tablet, laden with Android apps. We get previews of Facebook, running without issue and even a bit of 3D gaming in the form of Guitar Hero 5.

Everything looks smooth and really looks like a completely viable solution to bring a fleshed out app ecosystem to the MeeGo platform. There is also no issue running Android and MeeGo apps side-by-side, so cross-platform multitasking is a go too.

See the Company website

Demo Below!

Introducing the Latest MeeGo tablet from ASUS, The X101 powered by MeeGo OS, This Tablet appears to have enough arguments to put the yet to become popular OS back to relevance. The netbook will be powered by an Intel Atom CPU, clocked at 1.33GHz. There will be 1GB of RAM along with an 8GB SSD. The storage will be further expandable through a microSD card, as well as web storage thatoffered by ASUS and the rest of the netbook package includes a 10.1-inch screen with 1024×600 resolution, Wi-Fi, 2xUSB ports, and 4 hours battery.

The reports of MeeGo death are greatly exaggerated says Intel Vice President, Doug Fisher. And he should know he us also the General Manager of Intel System Software Solutions. Fisher also said that "nothing is changing" and reiterated Intel commitment to MeeGo. So, MeeGo fans can breathe a sigh of relief, the second backer of the OS is not pulling out like the first one did.

But another quote from Fisher suggests that Intel would love it if someone took Nokia place: "We will continue with development. It's just a question of who is going to help us shape that."

Samsung was rumored to be interested in buying MeeGo, but neither they nor Intel commented on that.

Intel is reportedly planning to discontinue development of the MeeGo platform, due to lack of interest by the hardware makers. Originally created by combining Intel Moblin and Nokia Maemo platforms, MeeGo was envision as a powerful Linux-based OS that could work on smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and netbooks. Nokia's decision to adopt Windows Phone as its mobile platform for high-end products pretty much killed the deal. To be fair, the Finnish giant has recently unveiled the Nokia N9, which is the first MeeGo-running smartphone, but it also stated its like an experimental device.

Meanwhile, it is said that Intel will focus on hardware products, and its handset platforms will be paired with either Android or Windows Phone in 2012.

Rumor has it that Intel will be temporarily discontinuing development on MeeGo development which coming after Nokia basically put MeeGo in the background as a platform for "long-term market exploration", may well mean the end of the platform.

Intel is, of course, denying such rumors, saying that they are still committed to the Linux-based OS.

MeeGo had high ambitions to power anything from smartphones through car infotainment systems to netbooks. So far, we have seen only one MeeGo smartphone, but thats about it.

Now the rumor mill is pointing towards Android and Windows Phone as the OSes of choice for Intel handset platforms and saying that the chip giant will stick to hardware from now on.

Looks like a New MeeGo Update is coming soon, Very soon... like TOMORROW. I know Nokia Gave up this Beatuiful OS but Developers did not. MeeGo 1.2.1 first repos image will be released tomorrow 1,September 2011 but its not the final version yet.

MeeGo 1.2.1 will be branched around Aug-10-2011 and released around Sep-01-2011. The release will include the MeeGo Repos and Tablet 1.2.1 images. 1.2.1 will be the end of the 1.2-based releases.

But this not the final version its just a stabilization phase towards the final release, the Final release is coming with some improcments nad bug fixes, but no Noticable GUI changes or New Features. It will start Rolling-out N900 image and MeeGo repos on 6,October  to 11,October... so MeeGo Fans Get your N900's Ready to flash this new version!

Final Version Release Date

MeeGo 1.2.1 will be the LAST version of the MeeGo 1.2.x release and the 1.3 Coming Early 2012.

source

The N9 continues to top the worldwide charts for most interesting handset of the month and thats the way Nokia made it. We waited for the first MeeGo device for nearly two years and now that its finally official we cannot keep off it. Its made to blend in top notch design and innovative build quality with a fresh out the oven OS with Nokia’s knowhow of craftsmanship and technology all into one device. A powerful combo indeed.

Now the official Nokia blog Conversations, is dedicating an article to the new browser of the N9, detailing how it works, how it feels, how it scores and what were the ideas behind it. Nokia-appointed browser guru Christian Sejersen shares that the N9 Meego browser was designed with the idea not to annoy its users and keep out of the way while they are browsing. So the UI is quite minimalist much like on an Android powered smartphone.