Open source phone goes mass-market, Jun 25, 2008

Openmoko has begun shipping its Linux-based, open source Neo Freerunner phone to five newly announced distributors, in Germany, France, and India, says the company. The Neo Freerunner features an open hardware design, and a Linux-based operating system that users are free to modify.

The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia said it expected the role of Linux operating software in mobile handsets would grow, but it would take some time to become mainstream.

Enea has upgraded its Linux-compatible interprocess communications (IPC) services software for distributed telecom systems. Linx now incorporates features that improve service availability, says Enea, including protocol/feature negotiation, priority messaging, and support for the new in-service upgrade capability in Enea's carrier-grade Element middleware.

Two just-published market research reports bode well for Linux's future in the market for higher-priced smartphones. J.D. Power reports that rising smartphone sales are driving handset prices higher, while ABI Research predicts Linux will take a 23 percent share of the smartphone segment by 2013.

Taiwanese vendor concedes leaving Windows will be "difficult" but that Linux is key

Yahoo and Microsoft used the press to negotiate for several months regarding a potential merger. Now it appears Acer and Microsoft are having a public spat. Or, if they aren't yet, Acer's comments Wednesday will likely start one.

Smartphones running Linux look set to become far more commonplace within the next five years, market watcher ABI Research has forecast.

...the Asus Eee is the one machine that has captured the hearts of minicomputer fans. In the United States, it costs $299 to $499. “This is the world’s first disposable notebook,” said Bob O’Donnell, a vice president at IDC, a computer industry research firm.

Asus will be releasing five laptop models with the Linux-based Splashtop operating system that supposedly boots in just a few seconds.

A Hong Kong-based manufacturer is shipping a Linux-based ultra-mini PC (UMPC) laptop for only $250 ($180 in volume), which appears to give it the lowest price yet for a Linux laptop. Bestlink's Alpha 400 offers a 400MHz CPU and a 7-inch, truecolor display.

Despite reports to the contrary, Nokia is not embracing Linux as a platform for its mobile phones. The Finnish giant insists that comments reported by Reuters and others were quoted out of context and that nothing has changed.

Hardware manufacturer Asus has announced that they eventually plan to ship all their motherboard models with Splashtop.

Linux, which has been much maligned by Symbian and Microsoft as a non-starter in the handset operating system market, is set to see strong growth as issues with framework fragmentation and silicon requirements are alleviated.

A pint-sized, multi-functional Linux server small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, was released this week into the North American market by Japan-based Plat'Home.

A vendor of power-efficient multicore PowerPC processors that run Linux and other embedded OSes will be acquired by Apple. Its purchase of P.A. Semi could signal Apple plans to migrate its desktops, servers, and embedded consumer products back to PowerPC.

It's not a forecast that will leave Symbian and Windows Mobile supporters quaking in their boots, but ABI Research is predicting that about 20% of middle and high-end mobile handsets will be running some form of the Linux operating system by 2013.

Linux is poised to challenge Microsoft and Symbian in the handset operating system market as issues with framework fragmentation and silicon requirements are alleviated.

Linux was used by 18 percent of embedded engineers responding to a survey, making it tops overall among both free and commercial OSes. Additionally, open source operating systems such as eCos, BSD, FreeRTOS, and TinyOS were reportedly used collectively by another five percent of respondents.

Asustek Computer Inc. on Friday confirmed that it will launch the Eee PC 900 in the U.S. on May 12 and that it will set $549 as the list price for the new ultralight notebook.

The maintainer of Linux 2.6 has called for a full-time, architecture-independent "embedded maintainer." Speaking at a CELF's fourth annual Embedded Linux Conference, Morton also told embedded developers how to select a kernel, get support from the kernel community, and decide whether to submit code to mainline.

In the tech industry these days, when you lift a rock you often find a bunch of Indian programmers hard at work under it. So it goes with the LiMo Foundation, which is building a stack of open-source middleware and an application programming interface to run mobile phones.

The Firebird Project has ported its lightweight, open-source database to the ARM architecture. The project is looking for help testing a new Firebird 2.1 RC2 release, which in addition to ARM support, adds database triggers, temporary and monitoring tables, common table expressions, and recursive queries.

Lenovo has introduced a Linux-based mobile Internet device that could be an iPhone killer in terms of the user experience. While the device's hardware is significantly larger than the iPhone, it is also vastly more capable.

The "Podzilla" open source application suite was ported to a relatively inexpensive line of flash-based mp3 players. Originally developed by the iPod Linux project, the software now runs on SanDisk's $100-$150 Sansa e200 devices, reports Sebastian Duell, chief SansaLinux project developer.

Shuttle announced today that its upcoming $199 KPC will ship with the open source Foresight Linux distribution. In addition to a price that squarely targets the budget market, the KPC features a small form factor and high energy efficiency. Shuttle has teamed up with Foresight and says that the Linux distribution's intuitive interface, user-focused design, and robust selection of included applications make it a win for average consumers.

Wind River's 4Q 2008 earnings results showed expected revenue growth to $84.3 million and a net loss of $2 million. However, Linux bookings were up 66 percent, with Linux expected to deliver $150 million in revenue for fiscal 2009, about 41 percent of the company's projected $365 million total.

Novell has updated its Linux distribution for administrators wishing to manage and customize point-of-sales/service (POS) systems. SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service (SLEPS) supports Linux-compatible equipment such as NCR's RealPOS 80XRT terminal, and can be used in large, "multi-tier" POS environments such as major retail chains, Novell said.

Texas Instruments (TI) will join the Linux Foundation in order to "collaborate with industry leaders who define both technical and operational best practices around open source software," it announced. TI's open source strategic marketing manager, Eric Thomas, will join the Foundation's board alongside new members Larry Augustin and Chris Schlaeger.

Berlin-based VoIP phone vendor Snom will show off its new line of Linux-based cordless VoIP phones at this week's CeBIT 2008 Conference in Hannover, Germany. Snom will also launch its Snom Hacker Shootout program to encourage hacker community involvement in addressing VoIP security issues.

Igel Techology has announced the incorporation of Philips SpeechMagic voice recognition technology into its thin client devices. Operable with or without training, the technology supports 25 different languages, allows dictation directly into templates, and permits switching between client- and server-based recognition, according to the company.

Nuvation has introduced two Linux-based reference designs that run on Texas Instruments (TI) DaVinci processors, and support power-over-Ethernet (PoE).

CoWare has announced that the latest version of its electronic system-level (ESL) product supports chipset, handset, and software development for the Open Handset Alliance's Android platform. The Android-ready CoWare ESL 2.0 offers virtual hardware platforms and tools for designing sub-systems, processors, DSPs, and software.

Bologna, Italy-based TBE has announced a Linux-based panel PC aimed at HMI (human-machine interface) applications. Available with an integrated 6.4-inch touchscreen display or as a processor module, the GNU-Linux-based Terminale Grafico ARM-Linux is based on a 200MHz Cirrus Logic EP9315 SoC.

Taiwan's BenQ is showing off a new user interface on an ultramobile PC that it plans to start marketing in the second quarter of this year, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday.

When the iPhone (AAPL) appeared last year, fans hailed it as the first handheld product to deliver a full Internet experience. While there was some truth to that claim, the iPhone is just the beginning. Equipped with more advanced semiconductors, handhelds—including the iPhone—may soon equal or surpass PCs as tools for work and play.

Linux seems to have chosen the 2008 Mobile World Congress to quietly make its way onto the new consumer devices so in abundance at the annual mobile Mecca.

NEC has thrown its weight behind mobile Linux with the introduction of four handsets based on the LiMo specification.

Nokia didn't mention the iPhone, but told a disappointed audience at the Mobile World Congress that it is still working on bringing out touch capability to its phones.

Several more members of the mobile Linux LiPS Forum are switching allegiance to the LiMo Foundation, this time including board and executive committee members, indicating that LiPS is losing steam.

Worldwide Linux mobile device market share remained flat at five percent in 4Q 2007, says a Canalys report on mobile phones. Yet the study also says that signs point to future growth for Linux phones.

Finland-based Navicron has introduced Linux-based hardware and software reference designs for smart wireless devices. Navicron's FusionSoftware stack and Freescale-MX31-based FusionPlatform reference hardware are said to be designed for smartphones, Internet tablets, automotive computers, and machine-to-machine (M2M) equipment.

MontaVista's Mobilinux 5.0 Linux implementation for mobile phones was named a finalist in EDN Magazine's 2008 "Innovation Awards" for the semiconductor business. One of four finalists in the software category, Mobilinux is joined by Linux-compatible hardware finalists from Altera, Tilera, and Xilinx, among others.

Opera has released the latest version of its browser for high-end mobile phones, claiming it offers faster rendering and responsiveness than its predecessors.

Another interesting tidbit from the release: Shipments of Linux-based smartphones were flat in 2007, despite the strong growth in almost every other segment of the market. That's Google's hope for Android, that it can take the promise of a mobile operating system based on Linux and actually get some traction.

I see a lot of predictions that say Linux is going to be one of the top three operating systems for mobile devices in coming years -- and a lot that say that mobile devices are going to make up an ever-larger portion of our information technology usage in the near future.

Purple Magic is a 3G Linux reference feature phone that costs less than $100 and combines video telephony, music playback, high-speed Internet browsing, and video streaming.

A Research and Markets study says that the market share for mobile Linux in Asia will increase in 2008. The study also predicts that smartphones will continue to grab mobile-phone market share, and will represent 22 percent of the Asian mobile market this year.

ASUS is expanding its Eee PC line to include not one but multiple extra models, including an all-in-one desktop, the company said today at a press event.

VSCom introduced a RISC-based industrial embedded computer that runs Linux. The ARM9-based OpenRISC Alekto comes with Debian Linux, can withstand temperatures from 14 to 149 degrees Fahrenheit, and provides interfaces including Ethernet, USB, I2C, serial, and digital I/O for hooking up industrial devices.

A design center in the South of France specializing in Linux mobile phone development has opened offices in Beijing. Purple Labs's China office will be headed by newly appointed GM of Asian sales Gordon Tsang (pictured at left), formerly of Openwave.

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