Nokia’s MeeGo-based N9, which went on sale in some parts of the world these days, might very well be the only MeeGo smartphone to hit the market, as now Linux Corporation replaces it with the new platform called Tizen, Mashable reported.

Tizen is an open source effort led by Samsung and Intel, hosted by the Linux Foundation, that will support multiple device categories: smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks, and in-vehicle infotainment devices. It will be based on HTML5 and other upcoming web standards, which is one of the main reasons why MeeGo had to be replaced.

“This new project is open source and Linux based. So it begs the question: why not just evolve MeeGo? We believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications”, explains director of Intel Open Source Technology Center Imad Sousou.

Sousou promises to help users and developers transition from MeeGo to Tizen as easily as possible.

The first release of the Tizen OS and its SDK is expected in the first 2012. MeeGo’s history was uncertain and rocky. It was created by merging Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin operating systems, but soon after its inception Nokia all but gave up on the new OS Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system.