Nokia promises high-end experience with MeeGo

Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is pushing hard to ensure its MeeGo effort brings the company back to prominence in the high-end smartphone market, according to a senior Nokia executive.

Click here to watch Nokia’s Alberto Torres discuss MeeGo.Alberto Torres, Nokia's executive vice president of MeeGo computers, said "MeeGo has the potential of creating something that's deeper than you find on a typical smartphone." In an interview with My Nokia on the sidelines of the Open Mobile Summit, Torres said Nokia plans to make MeeGo the basis for all of its flagship products.

Torres recently took over Nokia's MeeGo operations--the combined efforts of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin platforms--after a reshuffling of the company's management team in May. Though Nokia continues to dominate the worldwide smartphone market, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has promised to "help close the gap" on smartphones this year.

"We recognize that we have a lost some momentum in the high end," Torres said. He said Nokia's N8 device is the first step in regaining that momentum. The N8 is the company's first phone running Symbian^3, and will be released in the third quarter. Nokia plans to release its first MeeGo device before year-end.

Torres said MeeGo will push the envelope on processing power, but noted the company needs to continue innovating. "But at the same time, it's just a matter of finding the right balance," he said. "You don't want to introduce at the same time eight devices and all of them have so many small differences that make it very difficult to develop applications. But at the same time you have to evolve."

For more:
- see this Nokia blog post
- see this My Nokia blog post

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