What's the relationship between the Intel Atom Developer Program and the MeeGo operating system?

Question

I'm trying to understand the relationship between the Intel Atom Developer Program (IADP) and the new OS called MeeGo.

IADP let's me create applications that run on both MeeGo as well as Windows devices, as long as the device is based on the Atom processor. The IADP apps are published in an app store called AppUp, which is very much like the Apple App Store.

The MeeGo operating system merges Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo into one OS. The purpose seems to be to make it possible to develop software that will run on Intel powered devices, Nokia-made devices, as well devices from other companies. Nokia has its Ovi Store that will support MeeGo apps.

With its OS independent runtime, the question is what an IADP app really is? Is an IADP app a beast of its own, or is it just a MeeGo app that has been restricted to run only on Atom powered devices?

Will it be possible to recompile my IADP app to run on all MeeGo devices? Sold in Ovi Store?

Intel and Nokia have me really confused. Where should I go as a developer?

Answer 1

If you really have to decide now, go qt. There are a lot of important decicions yet to be made. Last week on embedded systems Nürnberg, I spoke to both parties about meego, and even they have been preparing the merger behind close doors, very few people inside both companies were inwolved so far. No wonder developers are clueless at the moment. You are not the only one beeing confused.

I have been developing for atom but never with iadp and start developing with maemo. Qt is a save bet for developers because it is not only for Intel and Maemo, but used heavily in every major hardware platform so far. I decided to be happy about every advantage the MeeGo merger gives me and go with the progress of details being sorted out.

My guess: Don't wait for selling IADP apps in OVI store.