In its endeavors to offer more substantial competition to Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS 4, smartphone industry bigwig Nokia is espousing the Linux-powered MeeGo platform for its flagship N-series smartphone line; thereby giving the Symbian OS a miss!

According to the information forwarded to Reuters by Doug Dawson, a Nokia spokesman, despite the fact that Symbian ensures ‘benefits of scale’ foe Nokia handsets by helping the company bring cheaper handsets to an increasing number of people, Nokia has still decided to mark a move forward – by adopting the MeeGo platform to power its N-series devices.

Noting that Nokia was evidently “betting the ranch” by adopting MeeGo to “beat high-end rivals” like the Apple iPhone, Dawson said: “Although potentially controversial, such a move would be an acknowledgement that this part of its open-source approach has failed.”

Meanwhile, commenting on Nokia’s shift towards MeeGo, CNET’s Stephen Shankland said that MeeGo better suits the new era of mobile devices as it falls into a broader ‘general-purpose’ category. Shankland also added that Android, iOS 4 and MeeGo share comparatively more of a “personal computer lineage” vis-à-vis Symbian and its conservative mobile strategy.

Explaining Nokia’s decision to abandon Symbian for its high-end handset lineup, CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood said that the move depicted Nokia’s need to ultimately “take decisive action” and “assume full control” of the wayward operating system.