Introducing the third dimension is intended to greatly simplify the increasingly complex user interface of smartphones, with their utterly endless apps and customization options. Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia and U.S. chip maker Intel plan to develop 3D software and virtual worlds for cell phones. A new research center in Oulu, Finland, is dedicated to studying the technical possibilities for displaying the remote party in 3D.

Nokia and Intel combined their two Linux-based operating systems into a version called MeeGo, designed to serve as a platform for new product developments. The first tablet PC running on MeeGo is to be presented at Berlin’s IFA consumer electronics trade show in early September. This would be a strategically important success over rival Apple.