NTT DoCoMo chooses Linux for next-gen phones
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MANHASSET, NY - MontaVista Software Inc. has announced that its MontaVista Linux has been chosen as the operating system for three new Foma third-generation (3G) mobile phones from NTT DoCoMo.
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MANHASSET, NY - NTT DoCoMo Inc. on Tuesday (Nov. 16) started selling what one analyst called the &quot;world&#39;s first commercially available&quot; combination Wi-Fi/cellular phone.
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The LiMo Foundation plans to release the first version of its Linux software platform for mobile phones in March, with handsets running the software due soon.LiMo&#39;s goal is to offer handset manufacturers an open, hardware-independent software platform that offers a secure environment for downloadable applications.Publishing the code on time is one thing, but &quot;putting handsets into consumers&#39; hands is the most important proof point,&quot; said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation. That will happen very soon, he said.On Monday, the Foundation will publish a beta version of the software&#39;s APIs (application programming interfaces) so that developers can begin writing applications to run on it.The APIs are still beta versions because the underlying software is not yet complete and minor details may change ahead of its release in March, Gillis said.The LiMo Foundation is focusing on phones&#39; middleware, leaving handset manufacturers and operators to choose their own user interface and content applications.That freedom is important, Gillis said, because &quot;the cost of developing the first phone on a platform can be as high as half a billion dollars.&quot;Phone manufacturers may be unwilling to make that kind of commitment to a new operating system if it will also leave them tied to another company&#39;s user interface or content applications, he said.&quot;That&#39;s why Windows Mobile and Series 60 didn&#39;t gain broad traction; suppliers didn&#39;t feel comfortable,&quot; he said.LiMo faces competition from another open platform,&#160;Android, supported by Google&#160;and the Open Handset Alliance.For Gillis, the connection between Android and Google&#39;s content make that another example of a tied operating system.Although the LiMo Foundation&#39;s code is not quite finished, most of it has already been proven in handsets sold or distributed by founder members Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone, Gillis said.Nevertheless, there are some new elements, notably the security model, Gillis said. &quot;Security in handsets is an area that tends to evolve quite quickly,&quot; he said.Since development of the platform began, &quot;there are no major new threats, but it&#39;s about evolving approaches and algorithms that address the security situation.&quot;Although the underlying platform is open, the handsets based on it may not be. The LiMo code includes support for application signing, allowing handset designers or operators to block the execution of unsigned downloads.&quot;The precise rules used for application signing are usually determined by the operator,&quot; Gillis said.However, he said, there are signs that operators are moving away from the &quot;walled garden&quot; they favored in the past to a more open approach.
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NTT DoCoMo says: &quot;Symbian - yes, mobile Linux - yes, Microsoft - BIG NO&quot;. Well, previously NTT DoCoMo was very promoting wireless Java in its handsets and J2EE Java in its servers (to power i-mode services
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CNET takes a look at some the advanced handsets from Japanese cell phone provider NTT DoCoMo at 2008 GSMA Mobile World Congress.
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NTT DoCoMo and Motorola have announced a deal to jointly develop a third-generation handset for business users, marking the American company&#39;s first major foray into the lucrative Japanese mobile phone market.
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After years of speculation, there are many who believe that Linux is about to become a major platform for advanced mobile devices. And, not surprisingly given Linux's history, there are those who strongly disagree.
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Motorola, No. 2 maker of mobile telephones, and NTT DoCoMo, the world&#39;s second-largest wireless carrier, will jointly develop handsets to attract business customers in Japan.
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NTT DoCoMo, Japan&#39;s top mobile-phone carrier, and Motorola Inc., the world&#39;s No. 2 cell-phone maker, plan to develop a next-generation mobile phone that subscribers in Japan can also use while traveling in
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Japan&#39;s largest mobile operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc. 9437.T , unveiled on Wednesday a new line of advanced mobile phones with stereo-quality surround sound, high-resolution digital cameras, and
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TOKYO: Motorola and NTT DoCoMo, Japan&#39;s top mobile phone operator, said yesterday they would jointly develop third-generation (3G) handsets, giving Motorola a way into a market largely out of reach for foreign manufacturers.
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An anonymous reader writes &quot;NEC and Panasonic have developed three Linux-powered 3G mobile phones to be introduced in Japan in the coming months -- NEC&#39;s N900iL, NEC&#39;s N901iC, and Panasonic&#39;s P901i.
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Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) is building its commitment to Linux, investing US&#36;3 million for a stake in mobile middleware developer MontaVista Software.
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DoCoMo has tapped up handset vendors to create the platform, which works with both Linux and Symbian phones, working with NEC and Panasonic on the former and Fujitsu on the latter.
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(InfoWorld) - Linux has been mentioned as a potentially leading platform for mobile devices for as long as there have been mobile devices. However, mobile Linux is still largely missing in action. The new crop of high-visibility smart phones such as the Samsung BlackJack, the Nokia E62 and the Treo 680 are based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, the Symbian and the aging Palm OS platforms. So why are some in the mobile industry saying, once again, that Linux is on the brink of becoming a significant platform for advanced mobile devices such as smart phones? And why should anybody but industry insiders and geeks care? "Linux has had peaks and troughs in the mobile industry, but it's looking quite positive at the moment," said Matt Lewis, research director at ARCchart. The market research company recently issued a report entitled "Linux: The New OS Celebrity." One reason for that optimism, according to mobile Linux proponents, is that this is an area in which Microsoft doesn't dominate, despite its best efforts. The reputed lower cost of Linux and its success in the corporate server market also encourage its supporters. Perhaps most important, however, is that Motorola, the second-largest mobile-phone vendor in the world, has thrown its support behind the operating system, saying recently that it expects more than half of its phone models to be based on Linux by the end of 2008. According to its proponents, the success of Linux will affect both the price of mobile devices and the development of mobile applications for consumers and enterprises. In other words, they say, the future of Linux is far more than just a matter of industry infighting.The skeptical point of viewLinux's success as a mobile platform has been predicted before. In 2002, for example, a firm helping electronics manufacturer Sharp Corp. market its Zaurus Linux handheld device predicted that Linux-based handhelds would capture 12% of the market by 2004. Linux never succeeded as a handheld operating system, and except for a few Asian markets, the Zaurus didn't succeed either. Skeptics also claim that the competitive landscape is too harsh for mobile Linux to succeed, even without Microsoft's dominance. Multiple market studies have shown that, worldwide, Symbian Ltd. is by far the leading platform provider for advanced mobile communications devices. Symbian is co-owned by Nokia Corp. and several other major phone manufacturers, ensuring that it will continue to succeed. In those studies, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Linux trail far behind Symbian in second and third place. However, skeptics point out that Microsoft is working hard -- and spending a lot of money -- to ensure the long-term success of Windows Mobile. The fact that several high-visibility smart phones such as Palm Inc.'s Treo 700w, Samsung Corp.'s BlackJack and Motorola's Q are based on Windows Mobile attests to Microsoft's progress, the skeptics point out. Even skeptics acknowledge that Linux is, in fact, currently being used in mobile devices. However, with only a few exceptions, its primary use is in low-end devices aimed at consumers such as so-called feature phones. These devices provide some mobile computing capabilities, like the ability to maintain personal information, but aren't nearly as powerful as smart phones. "It's best suited for consumer-level devices right now," ARCchart's Lewis acknowledged. "It's very much a feature phone platform at the moment." The question is whether mobile Linux can succeed as an operating system for more advanced devices such as smart phones, which are rapidly gaining in popularity. The answer to that question may well hinge on Motorola. The Motorola gambit Motorola has long built feature phones and basic cell phones on the Linux platform. But it is having success with Linux on smart phones, reportedly selling 1 million of its Linux-based Ming smart phones per quarter in China. Overall, Motorola has released nine Linux-based phones in recent years. The best-known is the ROKR E2, which has a built-in MP3 player and SecureDisk storage, according to a company spokesperson. Even though Motorola was once a co-owner of Symbian and has also created phones based on that system, the company understood the value of mobile Linux long ago, according to an executive. "In August of 2001, we had our first kickoff meeting to look at Linux on phones," said Mark VandenBrink, chief architect for Motorola's systems software and mobile device business. "We shipped our first Linux handset in 2003." He noted that one reason for that early interest was that Linux is indeed a less expensive platform. "We found that all chip set manufacturers were using Linux to test chips and to do functionality and coverage tests," VandenBrink said. "So when we started talking with our chip set manufacturers, they were already doing it, and we found their source code was already available. The same was true when we moved ahead to the next level of functionality like audio and video codecs at the application level -- everybody was already using Linux. So when we looked at pulling everything together, a lot of the pieces were already available. "Finally, there is a huge ecosystem of people all around the world doing all sorts of fascinating things with Linux," VandenBrink said. "In little universities, little mom-and-pop shops and big companies, people around the world are using Linux for innovations." Motorola has long since sold its stake in Symbian and, earlier this year, stepped up its commitment to mobile Linux. It announced a partnership with several major players in the wireless space including NEC Corp., Panasonic Corporation of North America, Samsung and cellular carriers NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC to develop common application programming interfaces (API) for mobile Linux. That is essential to the success of Linux as a mobile platform, many observers agree. "The problem with Linux has been that it doesn't have any one owner," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "What you need are specific profiles that define the target device. Microsoft has that with smart phones and Pocket PCs. Developers can develop [applications] and be sure they'll work. Symbian has it, too. But since Linux developers have been so focused on open source, they haven't created these profiles." These profiles will enable applications developed for mobile Linux to run on phones from multiple vendors, which it can't do currently. The operating system's current lack of cross-vendor support is one reason it has been relegated largely to relatively unsophisticated devices, the analysts agreed. If the Motorola-led effort succeeds, it could mean wider acceptance of mobile Linux for advanced devices like smart phones, the analysts said. However, the effort has a long way to go, Dulaney noted. "I don't see it going anywhere," he said. "Every time somebody tries this, a vendor says, 'If you do it my way, we'll do it.'" VandenBrink disagreed that the effort would fail, although he acknowledged that the Motorola-led effort will take time. Mobile Linux for the enterprise If Motorola's effort to create standard APIs succeeds, mobile Linux could be successful in the enterprise, even though that's where Microsoft's Windows Mobile is particularly strong, many people believe. "From an enterprise standpoint, Linux integrates better with a lot of [business] applications," said Neil Strother, research director at mobile device content and service for market research firm The NPD Group Inc. "That gives Linux an opening. If you go to a company with a strong Windows platform presence, it also could have segments of its back-end operations on Linux. Plus, if there's a core group of IT guys who are Linux geeks, and the company is cross-platform aware, they might be more open." That success would come, however, despite Microsoft's efforts to convince IT personnel that Windows Mobile is easier to manage than its competitors in shops that use Windows desktop and server products. "If you compare Linux to the Windows Mobile environment, Windows could be more attractive because that's where most enterprise developers have the most experience," ARCchart's Lewis said. "But there's no reason enterprises can't develop apps in the same way with Linux as they do with Windows Mobile or Symbian." Motorola's VandenBrink, not surprisingly, agreed. "What the enterprise market really boils down to at present is e-mail and personal information management," VandenBrink said. "That's an important part of the enterprise, but if you look at a broader aspect of what enterprise [mobility] really means, it's where sales people [on the road] can get portals back into their home system. That's the real enterprise market. That's what an IT person or an IBM looks at. We're at the beginning of trying to figure out what type of device will play into that." A Palm Linux resurgence? There's one other wild card for mobile Linux: The Linux version of the Palm OS. There are a number of mobile Linux platform developers, but Access Co., which now owns the once-popular Palm OS, is the most visible. It previously has said it will release the first Linux version of the venerable and familiar Palm OS to device manufacturers by the end of 2006, which would have resulted in devices being on the market by the third quarter. News reports this week, however, indicate the release to manufacturers could be as late as the middle of next year. A spokesperson for Access did not return calls about this issue or about participating in this story. Motorola's VandenBrink said the effect of that development is hard to know, but that Access' success isn't required for mobile Linux to succeed. "It's hard to speculate about something I haven't seen or have no understanding about," he said. "But there are a lot of people in this market. I talk to four to six companies a week, and a lot of them are coming out with Linux platforms." Dulaney was even more dubious, saying that there's no evidence that any vendors, except perhaps Palm, would embrace the Linux version of the Palm OS. "[Access] just don't have enough people supporting it," he said. Whether Access succeeds, however, the analysts agreed that in the end, some level of standardization is needed for mobile Linux to succeed. Motorola could succeed in an effort to standardize some portions of Linux, although history is not on its side, Dulaney said. "There are a lot of good intentions but, when it gets down to it, [Linux vendors] want to fight among themselves," Dulaney said. "In the consumer market, sure, there will be Linux. But the prospect of continued fragmentation in the developer community is very high."
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Japan&#39;s NTT DoCoMo has released a dual-mode phone that works on both 3G FOMA cellular networks and wireless local area networks.
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&quot;Future Palm devices may run Linux, thanks to a surprise purchase by PalmSource. The company, which makes the operating software for the PalmOne devices (notably the Treo smartphones), intends to buy China