There has been a lot of controversy over what is going on with MeeGo, there have been rumors about the MeeGo project being put on hold and being dropped all together. However, a few day’s before IDF Intel held a software day which pulled a few pieces of the puzzle together for me and it was when Peter Biddle, Head of Intel’s AppUp! discussed HTML5 in his presentation on the Future of the App Economy.
First, let me paint you the picture the way that I see it, I’m sure that the MeeGo project was put on hold, but I feel it was due to the fact that they needed to choose a new direction which is not reliant on Nokia’s tools, ie Qt. If we take a look at AppUp!, Intel’s consumer facing store front and the app store for MeeGo, we would realize that it has recently relaunched in HTML5 and Java Script which is a strong indication as to what framework Intel will choose to replace Qt.
Lots of Companies are going down the HTML5 route since its considered to be the future of the Internet. Speaking to developers Intel making the move from Qt to HTML5 & JS is a plausible move. However, some people will be wondering if Intel will just decide to fork Qt so they could keep their existing framework. This is a possibility but I feel that Intel will opt to sever all ties with Qt and Nokia in an attempt to break away cleanly.
In the video below I ask Peter to go over the advantages of moving AppUp! towards HTML5 and Java Script as well as how it all might relate to MeeGo. He does not at the end that certain elements of Qt remain, but I think that this tune will change over the next few weeks as we get into IDF and AppUp!’s Elements conference.
