LiMo Foundation ready with mobile Linux OSGoogle's Android may get all the attention, but there's more than one industry consortium working to unify Linux development for mobile phones.
A common platformHence the LiMo foundation's goal, which is to produce a common platform that various members can use to run mobile phones, and ensure application compatibility across different devices. Unfortunately, Release 1 falls short of that goal.Broader application portability will be accomplished with Release 2, expected out in early 2009, Shikiar said. The second release will also improve the multimedia capabilities of the operating system. By then, however, the Google Effect will have made its first impact on the mobile phone market. Android, and the Open Handset Alliance created by Google last year, have very much the same goal as LiMo: To unify Linux development for mobile phones. Google boasts a roster of many of the same companies that founded the LiMo foundation just months before Android made its debut, perhaps a hint those companies have now set their sights elsewhere for Linux mobile-phone software. The first phones to use Android are expected to arrive this summer or fall, just a few months after the first Release Candidate 1 phones arrive. Shikiar said LiMo doesn't see itself as a competitor to Android per se, but it's hard to see how the two organizations aren't jockeying for space inside the same phones. Phones with Release 1, however, are already in the market, such as Motorola's Razr2 and ROKR E8. Others are expected to be released later this year, Shikiar said. Via "One More Thing" blog at CNET News.com
|
- Talkback
-
