Vodafone's Little Boost for LiMo

Vodafone has picked U.S. software firm Azingo to develop Linux-based applications, the latest sign the world's largest wireless operator by sales is keeping Linux operating system LiMo as one of its key choices.

Privately held Azingo unveiled the deal on Thursday.

Vodafone, one of the founding members of mobile Linux foundation LiMo, has stressed the importance of cutting the number of different operating systems, raising some media speculation it could dump LiMo support.

"We are building their next-generation application strategy on that," Azingo Chief Executive Mahesh Veerina said in an interview.

Guido Arnone, director of terminals technology at Vodafone, said in a statement: "We (want) to develop cutting-edge applications for our mobile phones based on the LiMo platform."

Still hard to see how all this will pan out, but it's good that LiMo is moving forward. (Via @erwintenhumberg.)

The LiMo Has Arrived

Recently I interviewed Wind River's John Bruggeman, who filled me on the intricacies of the mobile Linux market. At that time, he mentioned that one of the two groups, LiMo, would be launching phones shortly. They've arrived:

The LiMo Foundation, a consortium of wireless-related companies seeking to create an open operating system for cellphones and other wireless devices, has introduced seven new handsets based upon the Linux operating system, bringing the total to 21. One, the Motozine ZN5 from Motorola, which has a five-megapixel camera, can be bought in the United States. The other six phones are available in Japan and, according to Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation, a harbinger of things to come.

It will be interesting to see what they're like, but in one sense, it doesn't matter. LiMo phones exist, now, and will only get better. That helps establish Linux in this space, and puts pressure on the other group, clustered around Google's Android.

More on Mobile Linux

Both the Open Handset Alliance and [the LiMo Foundation] leverage open source business models, and both rely on industry leaders to contribute market-proven technologies to open source community. Many of the players/members/founders are the same OEM and silicon companies in each camp to remain relevant to operators who narrow down to a single Linux platform, whichever they select.

LiMo and the Open Handset Alliance will likely both achieve many of their consortium goals in the market, avoiding a zero sum game. In fact, it doesn’t have to be that Open Handset Alliance is the exclusive platform for any OEM or carrier, or even exclusive Linux platform, but very clearly the open source counterbalance will be a LiMo compliant platform. Linux fragmentation still exists and will for some time Outside of the Linux world, however, competition from other platforms including Symbian and Microsoft is immense, intense, pervasive, and won’t sit idly by as the Open Handset Alliance and LiMo try to gain traction. For either partnership’s long term survival, its imperative that the two determine how to co-exist and even mutually benefit from one another at the expense of the non-Linux and fragmented Linux parties.

This is particularly interesting because it comes from Wind River, a member of both the Open Handset Alliance and the LiMo Foundation. Even more interesting is the fact that it was a long-time rival and opponent of mobile Linux, but afterwards saw the light, and is now an important promoter of the latter.

Let a Thousand Mobile Linuxes Bloom

One of the (many) question marks hanging over Google's Open Handset Alliance is how it fits in with the other mobile Linuxes out there - and what they think about it. Well, this is what LiMo says:

“The LiMo Foundation welcomes the news of Google’s mobile initiative. We believe Google’s entry into the mobile industry and the launch of the Open Handset Alliance further validate mobile Linux as the foundation technology enabling convergence within and beyond mobile,” said Morgan Gillis.

But Mandy Rice-Davies doubtless applies.

LiMo Foundation : What's in a Name?

Impressive line-up here:

Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone established the LiMo Foundation to develop the Foundation Platform, a Linux-based, open mobile communication device software platform.

A world-class Linux-based platform aims to provide key benefits for the mobile industry including lower development costs, increased flexibility, and a richer mobile ecosystem - all of which contribute to the group's ultimate objective of creating compelling, differentiated and enhanced consumer experiences.

LiMo? Limo? Limo?? Now why does this not suggest low-cost mobile communication devices to me?

Perhaps this is why they choose the name:

This weekend in the Sunday Times job section they advertised for the new CEO and were offering £200k.

Plus limo, presumably.