Nokia and Intel are to merge their respective Linux initiatives to form a new platform designed for high-end mobile computers. Known as ‘MeeGo,’ the platform will combine Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin. The deal will heighten competition in the mobile Linux space where the platform will compete with the likes of Google’s Android. The deal builds on an alliance forged between Nokia and Intel last summer. 

MeeGo will be hosted by the Linux Foundation and aims to create a unified Linux-based open source platform that will run across multiple devices. Speaking to reporters at Congress yesterday, Intel’s Renee James said MeeGo would target “pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems.”  Despite Nokia’s involvement, the platform will not favour any particular OEM. The first release of MeeGo is expected in the second quarter of 2010 with devices launching later in the year.

The two firms said that the collaboration will also unite their respective developer communities allowing them to use Nokia’s ‘QT’ developer tool to publish applications. For Nokia MeeGo devices, applications will be provided by the Finnish vendor’s Ovi Store.

To date, Nokia has released just one handset on its Linux platform – the N900 – but the firm’s EVP of devices, Kai Oistamo, hinted yesterday that MeeGo would power around 20 percent of its devices by 2011. “The N900 is the direction we are going in,” he said. However, Oistamo was forced to deny suggestions that focus on MeeGo marks a move away from Nokia’s traditional reliance on the Symbian smartphone platform.

Nokia remains the world’s largest handset vendor but it is deemed to have lost ground in the high-end space to premium devices such as Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s latest BlackBerrys. Nokia surprised many by launching no new handsets this week.

Elsewhere, Nokia also provided an update on its Ovi Store. Niklas Savander, Nokia’s EVP of services, announced a number of milestones across the Ovi portfolio. The highlight was Ovi Maps, which Savander said has registered 3 million downloads since launching last month.