August 4th, 2008
LiMo vows to fight on, debuts new mobile handsets from Motorola, NEC, Panasonic
The LiMo Foundation has no intention of fading away.
At the launch of LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco today, the foundation announced the release of several new Linux-based mobile handsets from Mototorola, NEC and Panasonic.
The addition of these latest models — including Motorola’s Motozine ZN5, NEC’s Foma N906i, N906iμ, N906iL and N706i, and Panasonic’s own Foma P906i and N906iμ — brings the total number of LiMo handsets to 21, the foundation announced today.
Several of these models incorporate mobile 2.0 features such as higher resolution displays, international 3G/High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) roaming capabilities, Global Positioning System (GPS), mobile TV and advanced video streaming, secure payment and advanced mail functionalities, the foundation announced.
LiMo’s Linux reference platform is one of several open source mobile platforms under development, including Google’s Android platform (also based on a Linux derivative) and Nokia’s plans for an open source platform based on the Symbian mobile OS platform, acquired earlier this summer.
Some have suggested that LiMo — a foundation founded in 2007 by six mobile manufacturers which now has more than 50 backers — will fade away amidst competition from Google and Nokia. But LiMo said it has no intention of going away and notes that Nokia is a member of the LiMo Foundation.
“Nokia should be lauded for its step in the right direction,” according to a release issued after Nokia announced plans to opne source Symbian over time. “It should also be noted that Nokia has its feet firmly planted in both the Linux and Symbian camps as members of the Linux Foundation, the Limo Foundation and creators of the N Series Mobile Linux device.”
Still, it’s not clear how long that will last. Nokia said the ”Symbian Foundation software will be released under a royalty-free license for foundation members as open source within two years, with the intent to use the Eclipse Public License.”
In response to questions about its commitment to the LiMo Foundation, Nokia said this:
“Our commitment remains to S60 on Symbian OS (and ultimately the Symbian Foundation platform) as our platform for converged mobile devices (or smartphones, as Symbian refers to them). However, we alre already producing mobile devices based on maemo Linux, our Internet tablet devices, we continue to see a strong role for Linux in that class of devices and will continue development,” said Mark Durrant, a spokesman for Nokia.
“With regard to LiMO, there are several different fora and consortia producing specifications and various technical and other documents to support development of mobile technologies. Nokia is constantly evaluating opportunities and is actively participating in some of those fora, such as the Open Mobile Alliance and Open Mobile Terminal Platform alliance. LiMo is certainly an interesting forum and we will consider in good time what kind of role Nokia should seek to have in this forum, if any.”
Paula Rooney is a Boston-based writer who has followed the tech industry for almost two decades. See her full profile and disclosure of her industry affiliations.
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