ITU: Mobile Linux gaining momentum

There has always been a lot of drive behind Linux on the mobile in Asia where there is a more experimental attitude towards handset platforms, but the word at ITU 2006 in Hong Kong this week is that interest in the rebel operating system is bleeding over into Europe and the US.

Speaking with telecoms.com at the conference, Haarvard Nord, CEO and founder of mobile Linux developer Trolltech, said that adoption of Linux was being driven by the handset manufacturer community. Because manufacturers need to get product to market quickly, a flexible operating system becomes worth its weight in gold.

Motorola, which has always been a proponent of Linux - the company develops its own flavour in house - has already adopted Trolltech's platform along with a number of smaller Asian manufacturers including NEC.

Obviously other handset vendors also have vested interests in alternative operating systems but the operator community is coming round to the idea of Linux on the device side, driving further adoption. Vodafoen for one recently standardised its handset portfolio across three operating systems including Linux.

"Early adopters had to do a lot of work themselves to get Linux onto the handset," said Nord, "but now we have one platform that offers support for everything from button-based phones to touch screens."

Trolltech has just launched Qtopia Greensuite, which is a complete pre-integrated platform or 'out of the box' operating system.

"The benefit of Linux is that it already supports new handset technologies such as wifi and still gives the vendors and operators total control of the development of the platform," said Nord. "We're moving away from homebrew installations," he said.

Rob Bamforth, analyst at Quocirca, agrees. "Any platform needs a rich ecosystem as well as a solid underlying technology to generate the volumes required for commercial success. Simplifying the development cycle through targeted, product ready software offerings is key to the continued success of Linux for mobile devices."

Indeed, Linux-based devices accounted for a good 20 per cent of the smartphone market in 2006, according to Gartner.

But the operating system, which is widely seen as the rebel platform in the desktop world, remains firmly grounded in its geek roots. OpenMoko, the Taiwanese community driven Linux effort that surfaced last month, still anticipates that hackers and geeks will be the first adopters of mass market Linux handsets.

"Initially this consumer will be people who like to tinker, hack if you will, on electronics. They have the strongest desire to see a mobile phone open and the tools to make it happen," said Sean Moss-Pultz, the founder of the initiative. "In my opinion, they will be the early adopters and drive the initial phase of this new market."

As a business model, the architect of the OpenMoko platform also sees the market for downloadable open source applications as the natural successor to the multi-billion dollar ringtone market.

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