Should Nokia Be Using MeeGo? Nokia Executive Allegedly Walks Out Due To Elop's Decision To Use WP7

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Interesting report out of Espoo today. A Finnish newspaper is reporting that Nokia Chief Technology Officer Richard Green is leaving Nokia because he’s (in short) unhappy with the company’s decision to ditch their Linux-based MeeGo operating system in favor of Windows Phone 7. Do you believe it?

The official line from Nokia is that Green is leaving Nokia for a medical leave of absence. The American executive came to Nokia from Sun Microsystems. But, the Helsingin Sanomat reports that Green is unlikely to return from his leave of absence, and claims that Green disagrees with the decision made by new CEO Stephen Elop to make Windows Phone 7 the new operating system of choice for the Finnish phone manufacturer.

Nokia had been developing MeeGo with Intel, and it was a Linux-based mobile operating system that quite a few in the open source community thought could be promising, and some even suggested it could be more “open” than Android. When Nokia announced they were making Windows Phone 7 their operating system of choice, Elop said that he saw MeeGo has a disruptive research mobile OS and not the mainstay of Nokia’s business. It surely was a blow for the Nokia loyalists who thought that MeeGo would replace Symbian as Nokia’s own operating system.

Industry analysts are more pessimistic about Nokia than ever. Reuters quotes analyst John Strand of Strand Consult as saying: “I think that this … will confirm to the most skeptical people that Nokia can never make a turnaround.” Yikes.

Should Nokia be using MeeGo instead of Windows Phone 7?