Nokia (NYSE:NOK) is offering raises and bonuses to its MeeGo developers in a bid to keep them working on the company's planned MeeGo device, the N950, Finnish news agency Taloussanomat reported, citing unnamed sources.
The news agency said Nokia, which last month announced a partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to make Windows Phone 7 its preferred smartphone platform, has not told the developers what they will be working on once the N950 is finished.
Although Nokia CTO Rich Green told a developer conference last week that the MeeGo device is worth releasing, according to CNet the company has not committed to releasing any more MeeGo devices beyond the one slated for later this year. However, Nokia will use the platform as a way to research future developments in smartphone technology. Thousands of Symbian and MeeGo developers are expected to lose their jobs as a result of Nokia's transition to WP7, but Nokia has not yet provided details.
A Nokia spokesman declined to comment on the report, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Since the Microsoft announcement, the fate of MeeGo has been thrown into disarray. Intel CEO Paul Otellini said last month that the company is looking for other hardware partners to release MeeGo devices. MeeGo is a Linux open-source project that was formed when Nokia and Intel pooled their mobile assets last year.
"We will find another partner (for MeeGo)," Otellini said, according to a Reuters report of the CEO's meeting with analysts in London. "The carriers still want a third ecosystem and the carriers want an open ecosystem, and that's the thing that drives our motivation."
For more:
- see this Dow Jones Newswires article
- see this CNet article
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