LiMo's Linux Phone Platform Nears Launch
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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.
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Mobile rivals compete for Texas Mobile World Congress The jockeying for dominance in mobile Linux developer platforms has taken a fresh twist with key announcements from two leading players arm wrestling for advantage.â¦
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Specialized blogs are all abuzz this week with rumors that Internet giant Google will soon launch the &quot;Google Phone&quot; or &quot;GPhone,&quot; a cheap mobile phone equipped with a Google operating system.
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As the SuperComputing 2004 show kicks off in the US city of Pittsburg this week, Linux technology will be well represented among the big honking processor, storage and networking technologies on display.
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The LiMo Foundation has added some members to its ranks as competition among new mobile Linux platforms heats up.LiMo plans to announce on Monday new members, including Trolltech, Acrodea, ETRI, Huawei, and Purple Labs. The group, including founders NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, and Motorola, now consists of 25 members.Trolltech said that it quit its participation in the Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS Forum), a group setting mobile Linux standards, in favor of working with LiMo. &quot;This is a solution based on code, not just a specification,&quot; said Benoit Schillings, CTO of Trolltech. Trolltech decided that LiMo&#39;s efforts were more likely to produce a real product before the LiPS initiative, he said.Trolltech&#39;s conversion comes after the LiPS Forum chose to base its user interface framework on Gnome&#39;s GTK toolkit rather than Trolltech&#39;s competitive application platform and user interface for Linux phones.Trolltech&#39;s change of heart is indicative of the heated competition in the fledgling market for Linux mobile phones. In addition to LiPS and LiMo with their different goals,&#160;Google recently announced its Linux-based mobile operating system, Android.While Android and its Open Handset Alliance supporters are creating a competitive offering to LiMo&#39;s software, LiMo&#39;s head says its effort has advantages.&quot;An important difference is that the code within the LiMo platform is market-proven technology that has been brought to the platform by our founder members in the form of Motorola, Samsung, NEC, and Panasonic,&quot; said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo. &quot;We simply reintegrated it to form the first release of the LiMo platform.&quot; That contrasts with Android, a new software platform containing &quot;unproven code&quot; that Google has only just produced, he said. It typically takes two to three years before handset software is stabilized and ready for volume production, he said.LiMo expects to unveil the first release of its open Linux-based operating system as well as APIs for developers during the first quarter. It also expects that the first handsets based on the software will hit the market during the quarter.
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PC Magazine - With Palm&#39;s surprise release of a $600 Linux-based sub-notebook on Wednesday, the company certainly appears to be wandering away from comfortable smartphone territory. The question is: is it too far?
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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
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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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The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum planned to release its first mobile phone specifications on Monday, in hopes of encouraging more applications for Linux phones.
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As Linux for mobiles gains momentum, ZDNet UK looks at the first reprogrammable device to target the developer community.
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PDA phone with slide-out keyboard and GPS, anyone?
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Yet another Web Operating System launches. This one is from Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com, Linspire, and SIPPhone.
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InfoWorld - The LiMo Foundation has added some members to its ranks as competition among new mobile Linux platforms heats up.
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Several more members of the mobile&#160;Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS) are switching allegiance to the LiMo Foundation, this time including board and executive committee members, indicating that LiPS is losing steam.Orange and its parent France Telecom, Access and Open-Plug all plan to announce at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday that they are joining LiMo. More vendors uniting behind LiMo could help to speed up the rate at which the companies can bring Linux-based devices to market.&quot;We probably will move out of LiPS at some point because it doesn&#39;t make sense to keep two different initiatives on the same topic,&quot; said Yves Christol, director of device development at Orange. Access and Orange Telecom will both join the board of LiMo. The president of LiPS, Haila Wang, works for France Telecom. Access and Open-Plug both have members on the LiPS board and executive committee.Montavista and Purple Labs have recently joined LiMo, though they appear to be staying active in LiPS as well. Trolltech recently quit LiPS in favor of LiMo. More may follow. Orange explained to the other LiPS members why it abandoned ship, &quot;and we believe some of them will share the same vision and will follow us and join LiMo,&quot; Christol said.LiPS appears to be holding out hope that some companies may continue to work with both groups. &quot;To the best of my knowledge, membership in one or any of these [organizations] is not an exclusive commitment,&quot; said Bill Weinberg, general manager of the LiPS Forum.Because the two groups take different approaches, they aren&#39;t in competition and are working toward a common goal, Weinberg said. &quot;Both organizations strive to fight fragmentation by improving interoperability of mobile applications and services across handsets and operators,&quot; he said.Timing appears to be driving many of these companies to gravitate toward LiMo. &quot;LiPS is essentially a standards-based organization,&quot; said Michel Piquemal, general manager for Access in France and director of strategic planning for the company in Europe. Most standards-setting processes take years to complete.LiMo, by contrast, has created a software stack made out of components contributed by various members. The&#160;first release of LiMo is expected in March. While&#160;LiPS has recently released a specification&#160;for some basic phone functions, LiMo plans to announce in Barcelona 18 LiMo phones, including some that are already on the market.&quot;Our approach is extremely fast and direct,&quot; said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo. &quot;The mobile industry, particularly in this phase, is dynamic and fast-moving -- and therefore, in order to make an impression, we have to do something that is practical and produces deliverables and is immediately usable by the industry.&quot;Other companies that planned to announce membership in LiMo on Monday include AMD, Renasas Technology, SoftBank and STMicroelectronics, bringing the number of members in the group to 32.LiPS and LiMo operate in addition to the Open Handset Alliance, the group Google started with its Android mobile software platform. Some companies have membership in both OHA and LiMo. So far, there isn&#39;t any indication that Google might try to align its efforts with LiMo.&quot;LiMo is fully open and we would be very receptive if Google expressed direct interest in working with us,&quot; said Gillis. &quot;LiMo is not in direct discussions with Google about Android joining LiMo.&quot;NOTE:This story was previously posted under embargo. It is now being reposted as it is available for immediate use online.
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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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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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Samsung  and LG  Electronics  on Monday showed new phones using free  Linux software from Mobile Linux foundation, which said in  total 18 phones from seven vendors would use its software.