Greenphone in hand

Trolltech is the company that brought developers the Linux-based mobile application platform Qtopia. In August it also used the LinuxWorld conference to announce the Greenphone, which is thought to be the first fully reprogrammable Linux phone. Trolltech hopes the Greenphone could help grow the mobile Linux market by encouraging developers to create applications for Linux-powered devices.

Despite being created purely for developers, the Greenphone is a more attractive device than one might imagine. "We wanted developers to use it as their everyday phone," said Haavard Nord, co-CEO of Trolltech. ZDNet UK met with Nord in central London to see the device, which will go on sale to developers at the end of September.

"It's kind of mind-boggling for developers," he added. "Everybody usually wants to protect the software in their phone, but we want to let the developers experiment and innovate."

September 7, 2006 12:25 PM PDT

Photo by: David Meyer/ZDNet UK