Four of the world's leading smartphone device makers and two
carriers have agreed to join together in support of an open Linux-based
platform for mobile devices.
Joining an effort to reduce Linux smartphone fragmentation, Motorola,
NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, and carriers NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone have announced they
plan to work cooperatively on a Linux-based platform they hope will help lower
development costs and increase platform reach and flexibility.
Apart from being a licence free platform, it will also
presumably help them ward off technical and marketshare advances made by
Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 into their smartphone business space.
The new platform will be managed by an independent
foundation which will bring together the various contributions of all
interested stakeholders "through an open and transparent process".
Nokia, which recently Open Sourced its browser technology,
is notable by its absence from the founding company list. Nokia has also toyed
with Linux, but like the others, the operating system represents only a minute
fraction of its sales.
Combining the market share of both Linux and Microsoft
powered devices, they represent less than a tenth of the marketshare held by industry
leader Symbian, which is heavily backed by Nokia.
The Linux group will focus on bringing together their
respective source code and will champion an API specification to leverage the
benefits of community-based and proprietary development.
Founding members of the Foundation, which doesn't seem to
have a name, will do the heavy lifting to put together a reference
implementation of the mobile operating platform. However, they also hope to
attract membership participation from other companies. Panasonic and NEC are
said to be the leaders in Linux-based smartphone market.
The new emphasis on Linux will not distract the membership
from their existing reliance on Windows and Symbian as it is likely to take
quite some time to bring the new code base up to speed. One industry watcher suggests
years.
First we will probably see entry level handsets introduced
at a lower cost than the Symbian and Microsoft offerings from the same
companies.
"As one of the leading pioneers with almost two years
of experience shipping Linux-based mobile phones, we are delighted to
participate in this initiative," said Yoshiharu Tamura, Executive General
Manager, Mobile Terminals Business Unit, NEC Corporation.
"We expect the foundation activities will accelerate
further expansion of mobile Linux application developer participation as well
as global market growth of 3G mobile handsets."
"Linux sits at the core of Panasonic Group's software
strategy, and to date we have shipped nearly 8 million Linux based handsets in
the highly competitive Japanese market," said Osamu Waki, Managing
Director of Panasonic Mobile Communications.
"We intend to leverage our experience to accelerate the
realisation of a truly global Linux-based software platform and ecosystem,
which will lead to faster time to market and increased flexibility, to deliver
appealing products fit for a ubiquitous network society," he said.
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