Nokia and Intel jumpstarted MWC 2010 this morning by announcing they are rolling Maemo and Moblin together into a new platform called MeeGo.

Mobile OS Positioning Before the Announcement

We think this is excellent news. Maemo and Moblin both have a lot of promise but, separately, they had a major risk of being marginal players that only made life more difficult for developers weighing their options.

Now, the combined open source platform has the potential to be a nice complement to iPhone OS, Android, and Symbian. And, if Nokia and Intel behave, MeeGo might be a more truly open platform than Android.

First devices with MeeGo should be seen during Q3 of this year when Nokia launches its successor(s) to the N900.

Of course, this all is still paper and announcements only, but our initial reaction is a strong thumbs up. We will revisit the issue as more information comes available.