DoCoMo standardizes on Symbian OS, and on Linux
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The Japanese carrier will be standardizing on Symbian for their 3G mobile phone platform, and they will ship 3G phones based on Linux.
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(InfoWorld) - Despite signs that mobile Linux is gaining momentum -- such as the launch ofÂ Motorola's Linux-based Razr2Â -- heated competition, confusion about goals, and slow-moving consortiums may be hindering growth. These developments are an indication of how much may be at stake. Between 2006 and 2012, cumulative Linux mobile device shipments are expected to reach 331 million, said Stuart Carlaw, an analyst with ABI Research. Such predictions are drawing interest to the segment from handset manufacturers, software developers, and carriers. The LiMo Foundation, the Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS), and the Open Source Development Labs' Mobile Linux Initiative are among the new groups formed over the past couple of years to try to reduce the fragmentation in the mobile Linux market and to encourage interoperability. But at least one mobile Linux vendor is critical of their progress. "They're still trying to figure out where to hold meetings," said Jim Ready, CTO and founder of MontaVista, of the activities of some of the groups. Progress at organizations like LiMo has been extremely slow, agreed Dan Cauchy, director of product marketing at MontaVista. "I'm concerned about what that will mean to the actual marketplace because each member company is building phones regardless," he said. Phone makers and software developers don't want to wait for the groups to decide on platforms and standards so they continue to make products that may not ultimately conform to the parameters set by the groups or interoperate, he said. Mobile phones are already plagued with interoperability issues that make it difficult for applications to run properly on all handsets. This problem hurts users interested in applications that are incompatible with their handsets. Also affected are software developers who have to make multiple versions of the same application for different handsets. Some operators, including Vodafone, have said they will soon require that all of their handsets run only two or three specific operating systems as a way to ensure that applications will work across all phones. The operators don't want to introduce Linux devices into their lineup of phones if they only exacerbate the interoperability problem. While MontaVista is active in many of the groups, it is also continuing to work closely with handset makers to meet their needs. According to Cauchy, 90 percent of mobile Linux devices--including Motorola's Razr2--are running MontaVista Linux. Confusion about goals in the industry could also be dragging down progress. "It's clear that the leading operators are telling the industry to consolidate," said Jason Whitmire, general manager of mobile solutions for Wind River, a Linux software developer with products for mobile phone vendors. "They expect to use only one OS stack or maybe two, so they have asked the industry to join together and do something." By his count, there are 22 different flavors of mobile Linux. But MontaVista has a different perspective. "Some of these consortiums are under the impression that they'll provide one stack to satisfy the world and I think carriers are saying, 'I don't think so'," said Cauchy. Choice is one of the main reasons driving the mobile Linux industry. In an ironic twist, Symbian, the mobile phone operating system, was first created by a group of mobile phone makers that feared that Microsoft, which had just entered the mobile market, might dominate like it did in the PC industry. But more recently, Symbian has begun to dominate the smart phone market enough that mobile operators wanted to be sure they had another choice, Carlaw said. Mobile Linux is an attempt to ensure that Microsoft and Symbian aren't the only options, he said. "The whole point is to have choice and alternatives," said Ready. "It's because of this paranoia about having one supplier ... that's why these consortiums show up." Too much choice, however, has been causing problems. At a mobile Linux conference in Madrid this week, fragmentation was a key concern particularly among smaller operators, Whitmire said. Without consolidation, they see costs related to supporting mobile Linux soaring, he said. Wind River, MontaVista, and others have one less potential competitor to worry about. During a keynote presentation at the Madrid conference, Red Hat said it has no intention of entering the embedded device Linux market. Fragmentation is an issue in mobile Linux, but some advancements are happening, Carlaw said. He's seen real progress in terms of different layers of the stack working together. It's been more difficult to improve on "horizontal" fragmentation. But that's starting to get better too, he said. For example, the LiPS Forum recently began working with the Open Mobile Alliance to improve interoperability both between mobile Linux devices and between Linux and non-Linux phones. It's natural to have this amount of fragmentation at this stage of the market development, and companies appear to have the incentive to continue to work it out, he said. "Carriers are still saying they're looking at Linux as a long-term prospect," he said.
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'Not really a hardware company' The Greenphone, launched with much publicity at LinuxWorld 2006, has been discontinued as Trolltech reckons the Neo 1973 can fulfil the role of a development platform, and therefore Greenphone has served its purpose.â¦
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Nokia and Intel said Tuesday they would work together to create smartphones based on the Symbian-based Series 60 platform. The Nokia-created Series 60 platform has as its core the Symbian OS.
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Will the competing next-generation optical disc standards ever meet in the same device? Not for now, it seems.
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A new mobile Linux platform from Azingo joins an increasingly crowded market of Linux phone software.
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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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Open-source software is carving a larger niche in the mobile realm, with electronics firms NEC (Nasdaq: NIPNY) and Panasonic rolling out Linux-based handhelds for Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM).
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TechWeb - Multistandard support means handset users will be able to choose which broadcasting services they want to use without changing their mobile application.
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NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier, expects to complete on Wednesday aÂ $3 million investment in Linux software development company MontaVista Software, a DoCoMo spokeswoman said.
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Another mobile Linux platform, this time from Azingo, hit the market on Wednesday, joining an increasingly crowded market of Linux phone software.Formerly called Celunite, Azingo aims to differentiate itself from the crowd by offering phone makers an entire package, including kernel, middleware, applications, development tools, and integration services.&quot;Mobile Linux has failed because there&#39;s a big integration problem,&quot; said Michael Mclaughlin, marketing director at Azingo. &quot;People come with piece parts.&quot;For example, companies such as&#160;MontaVista&#160;and Wind River make mobile Linux kernels, while others&#160;such as&#160;Trolltech, purchased by Nokia&#160;just this week, make application development environments. Phone makers typically must buy the different components, then struggle to integrate them. That puts mobile Linux at a disadvantage against some other mobile platforms,&#160;such as&#160;Windows Mobile, which comes complete, he said.Azingo is offering a complete suite of mobile Linux software but will also help customers integrate different pieces if they choose components from different vendors, said Mclaughlin.The applications Azingo offers as part of the platform include Web widgets that can deliver information such as weather and traffic, entertainment applications such as video and audio players, and productivity software&#160;such as&#160;e-mail.Azingo hasn&#39;t announced any deals with handset makers planning to use its software. Mclaughlin said the company has been working with some of the well-known vendors and expects handsets running its software to ship in the fourth quarter.The company isn&#39;t the only one offering the market a complete suite of mobile Linux software.&#160;A La Mobile has a similar approach, using some of its own software and integrating components from other vendors, including Trolltech. GUPP Technologies, a Malaysian company, announced in 2006 that it would use A La Mobile&#39;s platform.Azingo will also compete against&#160;Android, Google&#39;s high-profile Linux-based mobile phone operating platform, which includes an operating system, middleware, and applications. Android phones are expected to become available in the second half of this year.Azingo is a member of the&#160;LiMo Foundation, a group founded by Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, Samsung, and others to build a mobile Linux platform.
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PalmSource is to focus on wireless devices with its new version of Palm OS, but can it succeed against the likes of Microsoft and Symbian?
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As predicted UK mobile operator mmO2 has signed a deal with NTT DoCoMo of Japan to offer i-mode services in Britain. The terms of the agreement will allow the former mobile wing of BT to offer i-mode services
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The Missing Sync for Symbian provides data synchronization for Mac users of Symbian smartphones.
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With an eye towards making mobile devices and the commerce services that run over them more secure, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. on Wednesday published a jointly developed security specification called the Trusted Mobile Platform.
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The first "open" Linux phone is set to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show, although its capabilities as a music player are still unknown. In Listening Post.
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Version 1 Linux ready for mobile phone use Writing a software app for mobile phones can be an frustrating experience. What's sauce on one handset, may be poison on another. For compatability across phones, manufacturers and cellcos remains an elusive goal.â¦