The Linux Foundation's MeeGo platform, which was launched in 2009 when Intel and Nokia brought together their respective Linux-based mobile projects, is in need of some new friends. Nokia has significantly reduced its role in the project in the aftermath of a major strategic shift that has made Windows Phone 7 the company's primary platform.

Intel has soldiered on and intends to continue advancing MeeGo in collaboration with the Linux Foundation and other stakeholders. Although Intel is still committed, the lack of support from other major mobile players is hampering MeeGo's credibility as a vendor-neutral platform and serious contender in the market. Fortunately, MeeGo got a boost this week at IDF Beijing when Chinese technology powerhouse Tencent voiced its enthusiasm for the Linux-based mobile operating system.

According to NetbookNews, a representative of Tencent committed to expanding the team that the company has working on MeeGo-related projects over the next year, increasing the number of engineers to 100. Tencent, whose Internet empire includes popular chat services and network games, is looking to adopt Intel's Oak Trail chip for mobile gaming devices. The company intends to pair MeeGo with such hardware.

During IDF Beijing, Tencent demoed an Oak Trail tablet prototype running a new custom MeeGo tablet user interface. Based on the videos that have been published on YouTube, the user interface shown on the prototype appears to be much more polished than the reference interface that we tested last month.

The growing momentum of MeeGo in China offers some hope for the platform's future and suggests that it's still too soon to write off MeeGo as a dead end. Despite Nokia's high-profile defection, MeeGo will go on.