On Friday, Microsoft and Nokia announced new plans to collaborate on Nokia-branded smartphones that will use the Windows Phone 7 operating system. Over time, Nokia will phase out Symbian altogether.
For developers, that means interest in creating apps for Symbian will die out pretty quickly. It also means the Qt development platform will be replaced by Microsoft development tools.
It’s less clear what will happen with the MeeGo operating system that was originally slated to replace Symbian. Nokia says it will ship one MeeGo device this year, but it doesn’t appear likely that it will produce any MeeGo phones after that. Intel, however, plans to stick with the open source project, saying, “While we are disappointed with Nokia’s decision, Intel is not blinking on MeeGo. We remain committed and welcome Nokia’s continued contribution to MeeGo open source.”
