14 DAY TRIAL // LiMo Foundation, the global consortium of mobile leaders providing an open handset platform for the entire mobile industry, announced today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the first handsets based on the LiMo Platform - the world's first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices. The initial LiMo-based handsets are confirmed by industry leaders including Motorola, Samsung, LG, NEC and Panasonic Mobile Communications.
"The breadth of the initial wave of LiMo handsets - 18 models from 7 vendors - consolidates LiMo's role as the unifying force within Mobile Linux and highlights the strong momentum established in the 12 months since LiMo was launched," said Morgan Gillis, Executive Director of the LiMo Foundation. "Within one year, LiMo has secured powerful industry engagement, announced the on-schedule availability of the LiMo Platform and is today registering the first generation of handsets using LiMo Platform technology. We believe our rapid progress is propelled by LiMo's inclusive and transparent governance model - with shared leadership and shared decision making - and pragmatic, code-centric approach to open-source innovation."
The commercial LiMo mobile phones announced today are: MOTO Z6w, MOTO U9, MOTOROKR Z6, MOTOROKR E8, RAZR2 V8 and RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition from Motorola; SGH-i800 from Samsung; NTT DoCoMo FOMA N705i, FOMA N705i?, FOMA N905i and FOMA N905i? from NEC; NTT DoCoMo FOMA P705i, FOMA P705i? FOMA P905i and FOMA P905iTV from Panasonic Mobile Communications.
The prototype and reference handsets announced today are: LG LiMo Phone from LG Electronics, Purple Magic from Purple Labs and OPAL(m) from Aplix.
"We look forward to the continued, rapid roll-out of LiMo handsets, further expanding LiMo's market reach and unifying the Mobile Linux ecosystem," said Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo, chairperson of LiMo Foundation. "The mobile industry is embracing Linux and openness as the key enablers of lower device development costs, increased flexibility and quicker time to market for innovative services of all kinds. LiMo Foundation is driving these trends."
Leveraging standards and open-source projects, the LiMo Platform works as a plug-in based, modular hardware-independent architecture and is built around an open operating system with a safe run-time environment to support downloaded applications. LiMo's API (application programming interface) specifications are now available for download from the LiMo Platform website, at this address.
LiMo Foundation is open to all service providers and vendors in the mobile communications industry, including operators, device manufacturers, chipset manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third-party developers.