Live from Nokia's (and Intel's) MWC 2010 press event

We've just been sent into an Auditorium here at ONCE in Barcelona -- just seconds away from the Fira convention center -- and we're about to get underway. Keep it locked!

12:51PM And that's it!

12:51PM One last announcement -- Nokia World is scheduled for September 14-15 this year. Likely some serious hardware announcements there (or at least there'd better be). MeeGo, perhaps?

12:50PM The Q&A isn't over, but many attendees here have voiced their opinion of this snoozefest by bolting. Seats are empty.

12:46PM Here's a quotable regarding Ovi Music's profitability: "I can assure you this is not a charity event." Alright then!

12:39PM And Niklas is off the stage! Q&A time.

12:38PM Nokia Money's first financial partner (in other words, your cash isn't being wired to Espoo as far as we can tell) is Yes Bank.

12:38PM There'll be a commercial rollout across "all major Indian cities" within 12 months.

12:37PM India's getting the Nokia Money service first as a pilot in Pune, with a population of 6.8 million.

12:36PM Now we're talking about Nokia Money... "we manage our money online. We pay bills, we pay for products and services. Now imagine that product in a growth country."

12:35PM And... one million Life Tools users. Of course!

12:33PM Ovi Mail is signing up a million customers a month, apparently. A lot of "one million" milestones here today, eh?

12:32PM Nokia Messaging has an interesting model -- free to the consumer, and Nokia gets a cut of the data plan.

12:30PM One million downloads per day in the store - 15 per second.

12:30PM He's saying that Ovi Store is getting better very quickly -- and that 30 percent of Ovi Maps' downloads came from it. That's nothing to sneeze at, admittedly.

12:28PM Ovi Music activations apparently grew 400 percent from November to December -- an impressive number, Savander says, even taking into account the seasonal uptick. He says January is looking good as well. Could Ovi Music be turning the corner? Is it possible?

12:26PM "We haven't even discussed the advertising potential for us and our partners going into the future." Look for mobile ads to figure prominently into the Ovi equation (and everywhere, for that matter -- just look at Apple's and Google's recent acquisitions).

12:24PM Interestingly, Savander's saying the free aspect of Ovi Maps is an "operational" advantage for them, since they don't need to worry about billing systems. A nice way to spin a revenue loss into a positive, we'd say.

12:23PM Apparently it's huge in China, which makes sense -- Nokia has a major presence there.

12:21PM He's talking about the huge response to free Ovi Maps - 3 million downloads in 26 days.

12:19PM Niklas Savander, EVP of services, is on the stage.

12:19PM We're back underway!

12:08PM And we've wrapped up the Q&A! Nokia is up next -- this time, alone -- in a couple minutes.

12:06PM Here's a tricky one for Nokia to answer: why would other phone manufacturers choose MeeGo? "This is truly open -- we really are inviting everybody."

12:05PM The Q&A is still ongoing here, but stay tuned -- Nokia's Intel-free portion of this press conference is coming up next.

12:01PM Nokia's not decided whether Maemo 6 will be Maemo 6, MeeGo, or something else. "We haven't decided on the branding."

12:01PM Moblin apps will be forward-compatible with MeeGo.

12:00PM In response to a question about whether this'll just be x86, the response was a vague "we'll support multiple architectures." In other words, this is going to put Intel in the unusual position of supporting a platform that runs on ARM.

11:59AM They're emphasizing that this'll hit multiple devices with different form factors -- a marked change for Nokia with Maemo.

11:57AM An audience question about roadmap timing between Maemo and MeeGo -- "you can look at the future of Maemo merging into MeeGo with no delays." As far as we can tell, that means Maemo 6 IS MeeGo, but they've not said it explicitly.

11:55AM "If you look at the next release of Maemo, it'll be fully compatible with MeeGo in terms of application development."

11:55AM "We're creating momentum that will draw new devices." Of course, neither Maemo nor Moblin have a ton of retail hardware, so this might help get it out there.

11:53AM MeeGo will "coexist" with Symbian.

11:53AM First release available in the second quarter of this year.

11:52AM There are 17 partners building Moblin-based solutions, apparently; all will be migrated to MeeGo.

11:51AM "We are not going to favor any particular OEM or hardware architecture."

11:50AM Intel's AppUp will be the primary app market, it seems.

11:49AM "With Qt, you write your application once, and that's it."

11:49AM meego.com's open and available to check out today!

11:48AM It'll have Qt on board, theoretically making apps easier to port across devices and platforms -- Symbian's been specifically mentioned.

11:47AM "By combining Maemo and Moblin, we are going to reduce fragmentation and complexity."

11:46AM "We see MeeGo as an open frontier -- no walls, no fences."

11:45AM Looks like they want to span the range with this thing, from connected TVs and phones to tablets and netbooks.

11:44AM "It will be governed by the best practices of open source."

11:44AM MeeGo was just announced: a blend of Moblin and Maemo. Whoa.

11:43AM From Nokia: "I'm sensing a lot of optimism for the year going forward."

11:43AM Now we've got both Intel and Nokia VPs on stage, too. They seem pretty stoked.

11:42AM Looks like we're kicking off! We've got Claudine Mangano from Intel on the stage.

11:39AM The music selection here is... well, harmonious. That might work well with the fact that Intel's joining Nokia on stage today -- but for what exactly, we don't know.