While Symbian and Android promise, Linux continues to hit new phones

Motorola quietly released a series of new Linux-based mobile phones this week. There's been a lot of noise around Symbian moving to open source and Google's Linux-based Android mobile platform, but both open-source Symbian and Android are still just press releases and talk.

Motorola's new ROKR line, however, is available now. You don't have to wait to buy a Linux-based phone. You can start calling with one today.

Who is behind these phones? The LiMo Foundation, which has been releasing a slew of new handsets and signing up new partners. By the time that Symbian and Android arrive at the party, will it be too late?

[gt5392c]

[ethana2]

Woohoo! This is the Year of the Linux Phone!
(in my family, the year of the linux desktop was 2007)

[pablonhess]

?By the time that Symbian and Android arrive at the party, will it be too late??

Not at all. As far as I've heard, Motorola has been selling Linux-based handsets for quite some time already. But we don't get anything nifty from their use of an open source system.

In contrast, getting a SDK for Symbian is pretty easy, and VERY easy in the case of Android.

Just delivering Linux-based handsets is really not enough. Letting your users integrate their code to your products is the really exciting news here.

[enderandrew]

pablonhess nailed it. These current handsets aren't open, where as Android already has tens of thousands of apps. Regardless, two years ago you could have said, "Microsoft and RIM seem to have the smartphone locked up, so when the iPhone launches, will it be too late?"

Suggesting that a new product has no chance of competing just because existing products are already on the market is pretty silly.