Open source mobile platforms converge on LinuxWorld

During this year's LinuxWorld, it was more obvious than ever before that open source technology is finding a place in mobile phones. But some hurdles stand in the way, including the sheer number of competing platforms in this space.

SAN FRANCISCO (BetaNews) - A major problem standing in the way of mobile developers is the wide variety of different companies competing in the mobile platform space. Although this may sound like more of a blessing than a problem, some of these platforms' supporters find themselves allied with some projects and opposed on others -- which has already led to some friction.

The Linux Mobile Foundation (LiMo) announced earlier this week that it has added new partners to the organization and have several new LiMo-backed phones coming in the future. The organization now has more than 50 active participants, working on the software, hardware and network platform.

Yesterday, the ROKR EM30 became the twenty-second official LiMo handset and the eighth LiMo phone from Motorola. Its announcement came one day after the seven other LiMo equipped mobile phones from Motorola, NEC and Panasonic.

The EM30 doubles as a music player, with Motorola promoting it as a "50% talk, 50% music" phone. Motorola's ModeShift technology illuminates the EM30's keyboard with different colors depending on whether it's being used as a phone or a music player.

The phone has a built-in 2.0 megapixel camera offering up to 8x digital zoom, FM radio, microSD slot, and is a GSM quad-band phone that can be used around the world. Owners will be able to sync their phone with Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 and automatically download music directly to their phone from different online music vendors.

EM30 phone owners will not likely notice a difference between the LiMo phone and a regular Motorola phone, as their basic functionality will be the same.

Elsewhere, the current caretaker of the Palm OS platform, Access, was on hand at LinuxWorld to discuss its mobile platform and where it stands today. The Access Linux Platform entered the market as one of the first open source Linux platforms for developers to tinker with.

Access officials we spoke with at LinuxWorld said that, after having delayed the next Palm OS edition last year, its timeline for platform development has actually been pushed up due to other companies joining the open source push. Its latest platform is now in the hands of manufacturers, and Access is working to integrate it into future products.

Just last year, Access publicly launched the Access Developer Network, which is a network designed so programmers can create, distribute and use Linux applications specifically made for the Access Linux Platform. Company officials launched the program hoping it would help give programmers another incentive to take their products mobile.

Also here this week, Openmoko is showing off its Neo FreeRunner mobile phone, which is completely open to third-party developers. The phone has a 2.8" touch screen display, 400 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, microSD expansion slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS capabilities.

The Neo FreeRunner is available now in the United States, Europe and India, with a $399 MSRP price tag. Openmoko officials said its first stock of FreeRunner phones sold out within a week of its July 4 launch.

Openmoko remains the only company that has a completely open, Linux-based mobile phone available for developers to work with. Specifically during the show, Openmoko published the schematics for its phone in hopes of putting further pressure on competitors while also giving developers more access to the phone. Any interested party now has full access to both the Neo 1973 phone released in 2006 and the newer Neo FreeRunner mobile phone.

Mobile analysts at ABI Research expect at least 305,000 Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) to be sold in 2008, with that number reaching almost 40 million by 2013. Competing head-to-head with Windows Mobile devices, LiMo, Maemo, and Moblin -- all of which are open source platforms -- could possibly overtake Windows in the MID market.