14 DAY TRIAL // Trolltech Ltd. has announced the discontinuation of the innovative development platform, Greenphone. The device that was released at the LinuxWorld Conference 2006, became popular among those who wanted to create third-party application software for the mobile phone and who needed a device based on an Open Source development platform.
Besides the discontinuation of the Greenphone, the company has also announced that the it would be replaced by some new portable media devices and mobile phones, although they will be distributed by third-parties.
The FIC Neo 1973 mobile phone, released in July, this year, was the new target device for the TrollTech GreenPhone, since the platform's announcement. This mobile phone may have in the future a Wi-Fi capability, but at this moment, it is targeting the software developers.
Since the release of the FIC Neo 1973, Linux-based mobile phones have received an increasing interest from companies. This type of devices has been on the market from well-known companies like Motorola, with the ROKR 2 model, and the Nokia N73 as a result of demand and as a response to the Closed Source nature of the Apple iPhone because of its limited development capabilities.
Benoit Schillings, Trolltech CTO, talking about the success of the platform:"The success of Greenphone is due in large part to the void it filled in the market by providing an open phone platform that could be used for experimentation and to build innovate applications. While we have sold out our inventory of Greenphones, we continue to work with other hardware manufacturers which have open devices on the market. Our community now has a choice of phone platforms to work with and we aim to support additional platforms in the future."
Nokia is one of the companies that have started marketing campaigns in the United Kingdom designed to let people know that its devices are available to everyone.