Open Handset Group Announces Linux Based Handset Platform

The open handset consortium, the LiMo Foundation has announced the on-schedule availability in March 2008 of the first release of the LiMo Platform - a Linux-based software platform for mobile handsets-together with the immediate public availability of the application programming interface (API) specifications.

"The LiMo Platform is being readied by mobile leaders working in unison to deliver an open handset platform for use by the whole industry," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation. "The first release of the LiMo Platform combines technologies already extensively market proven within an array of leading handsets. This will enable initial LiMo handsets to register in the marketplace far more rapidly than handsets based on unproven technology. In addition, we are now making the platform APIs freely available to the public in order to begin the widespread engagement of developer talent and innovation that will shape the new mobile consumer experiences of tomorrow."

LiMo's initial Founder members -- Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone -- collaborated on Release 1 (R1), and nearly all of the enabling technology within R1 has been commercially deployed and proven within handsets used by consumers today.

The LiMo Platform-leveraging standards and open-source projects -- is a modular, plug-in-based, hardware-independent architecture built around an open operating system, with a secure run-time environment for support of downloaded applications. Linux was selected as the core technology for the LiMo Platform for its acceptability by the whole mobile industry, its rich functionality and scalability, its record of success in embedded systems and mobile phones and its potential to easily "cross-platformize" with other product categories.

"With LiMo announcing the first release of the platform that is common across many handset vendors and models, the stage is set for mobile innovation on Linux," said Guido Arnone, Director of Terminals Technology, Vodafone, and vice chairperson of LiMo Foundation. "The LiMo Platform enables operators and handset makers to assign greater investment to technologies that improve the consumer experience and technology vendors and ISVs to target their products for a software platform that is being broadly adopted by the whole industry."

Third-party developers will be able to use LiMo's API specifications, while middleware components for the LiMo Platform can be implemented in either C or C++ programming languages.

Posted to the site on 4th February 2008