Linux Phone Standards Have Been Published

Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum has released the results of yesterday's meeting. The need for this set of specifications was needed, as the number of mobile phones working on Linux has increased at a fast pace in the last time. These specifications are part of the LiPS Release 1.0, which will be gradually completed throughout the year 2008. Actually, this is the first such document that LiPS Forum has presented since it appeared, in 2005.

The need for such a release is felt as part of the growing market share that Linux-based mobile phones have taken in the last time. Moreover, analysts see a bright future for this working platform, as the number of Linux-based mobile phones is expected to surpass those of handsets using other software.

"Ongoing elaboration and adoption of the LiPS standards specifications will sustain the impressive growth of mobile Linux deployment, enhancing interoperability among devices and software, and streamlining time-to-market and rollout for Linux-based devices and services", said Haila Wang, president of the LiPS Forum.

The new LiPS standards offer a wide range of solutions for problems such as reducing fragmentation, informing and aligning OEMs, ISVs, operators and other consortia and standard bodies. "LiPS belongs to a new class of industry forums whose standards development model is closer to open source principles, i.e. standardization through public specifications and reference code implementations, rather than just paper-based", said Andreas Constantinou, senior analyst with VisionMobile and author of a forthcoming strategic report on mobile open source.

Other published specifications regard LiPS Reference Model, Address Book and Voice Call Enabler and User Interface Services (Widget sets, Key Navigation and Text Input Method APIs– based on GTK). The LiPS Forum also plans on developing solutions for telephony, PIM and UI services, where mobile Linux currently presents weaknesses.

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