Consortiums for Mobile Phone Linux Close Ranks

Jun 27, 2008

LiPS (the Linux Phone Standard Forum) and the LiMo Foundation (Linux Mobile), which both seek to promote Linux on the cellphone market, have now official joined forces.

LiPS will be setting up shop under the LiMo Foundation umbrella and bringing its members along with it, including Italian, French and British telcos and various hardware and software vendors (Texas Instruments, NXP Semiconductors). LiMo Foundation members include cell giants such as Vodafone, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO. The foundation is also working on a Linux-based platform for cellphones. Whereas LiMo released an initial version of its platform in April, LiPS has been working on an open cellular radio standard since 2005, Version 1.0 of which was released in 2007. The cellular radio market is currently very volatile with several software systems seeking to make a move to mobile devices. Collaboration between LiPS and LiMo can be seen as a reaction to Symbian announcing plans to publish its own platform under an open license and to launch a foundation which will include major players such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO. Google Android is also battling for a share of the market. Google founded the Open Handset Alliance which also includes the ubiquitous NTT DOCOMO, T-Mobile, Telekom Italia, Spain’s Telefonica, Intel, Nvidia, and LG Electronics just to name a few. This is an exciting scenario with three major lobbies working the lucrative cellular telephony market: the LiMo Foundation, the Symbian Foundation, and the Open Handset Alliance.

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