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Linux: more movers hit the LiMo scene |
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Wednesday, 19 September 2007 |
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Broadcom announces membership of mobile OS body as potential for standards conflict grows…
Semiconductor company Broadcom this week announces its membership of the mobile Linux pressure group the LiMo Foundation. The ‘news’ comes about eight weeks after the Limo Foundation itself announced a slew of new joiners, including Aplix, Celunite, LG Electronics, McAfee and Wind River as Core members, and ARM, Ericsson, Innopath, KTF, MontaVista Software, NXP B.V. and…er… Broadcom as Associate members. Founder members of the organisation are Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone.
Yesterday the LiMo Foundation’s executive director Morgan Gilis had the following to say: “Broadcom's membership in the LiMo Foundation highlights the growing enthusiasm for mobile Linux and the effort to build products within a shared architecture. The power of the LiMo Foundation increases with each new committed contributor and the addition of Broadcom to this alliance will make the technology increasingly attractive for new handset products.”
But Broadcom isn’t just nailing its colours to the mobile Linux OS mast. The company states that the move to join the LiMo Foundation follows the recent expansion of its Smartphone design centre in
Taiwan, which currently focuses on the development of Windows Mobile solutions, and joining the S60 developers' community for Symbian S60 based Smartphones.
According to the IMS Research company the increased focus on mobile Linux shows a high level of interest from all segments of the cellular handset industry, including manufacturers, network operators and component suppliers. However, says IMS, this still leaves the potential problem of conflicting standards. While it certainly has its share of significant industry supporters, the LiMo Foundation is not the only group working on establishing a mobile Linux standard. IMS notes that the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum has recently released its own set of specifications as Release 1.0, with an accompanying roadmap highlighting specific goals for implementation throughout 2008. LiPS Forum members include other Linux contenders such as Trolltech, a la Mobile and VirtualLogix, in addition to industry players such as Orange, Telecom Italia, Huawei, Freescale, TI and ZTE. Perhaps hedging their bets, offers IMS, Celunite, NXP, MontaVista and others are maintaining a membership in both groups.
IMS argues that the goals of these two groups are not necessarily in conflict. “The LiMo Foundation intends to develop an actual mobile Linux platform, which potentially will conform to the standards established by the LiPS Forum,” comments IMS Research director John Devlin.
But they could be. “However, since the LiMo Foundation has stated a desire to have products shipping as early as next 2Q08, they are working in advance of any final standards that will be set by the LiPS Forum. This creates the potential for the LiMO Foundation platform becoming a de facto competing standard,” judges Devlin.
John Williamson |
