The mobile industry has never been more active and interesting, with much of the froth centered on Apple's impressive iPhone. In the wake of the iPhone's success a range of competitors have arisen, many of them open source, including Google Android, Symbian, and...the LiMo Foundation.
That last one may not be top-of-mind for many people, but LiMo, launched in February 2007 with the goal of establishing a collaborative platform for Linux-based handsets, has quietly been making headway amongst mobile handset manufacturers, with more than 30 handsets shipping the first release of its software and a bevy to come at the end of 2009 with the second release of the software.
Most intriguing for me, LiMo's software isn't solely used in high-end smartphones, as Apple's and Google's software is, but instead covers a wide array of smartphones and feature phones.
The foundation started with just six members--NEC, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Panasonic, Samsung and Vodafone--but has significantly expanded its membership over time, most recently adding Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications, Marvell Semiconductor, Opera Software, Telefonica, and more to the roster.
I spoke with Andrew Shikiar, director of Global Marketing for LiMo Foundation, on Tuesday to get a status report on LiMo, as well as to uncover what makes the foundation tick.
Shikiar pointed out that unlike Google Android, for example, LiMo is developed by a consortium of competitors and collaborators that have decided to commoditize the operating system and middleware layers of mobile computing with LiMo's Linux platform, thereby freeing themselves to innovate beyond the operating system.
The LiMo Platform
(Credit: LiMo Foundation)Shikiar speculates that "it's unclear that the open-source community is going to be enthusiastic about contributing to Android when ultimately it's Google, alone, that derives the most benefits."
He may be right.
Shikiar also noted LiMo's somewhat unique governance model:
Part of what makes LiMo unique is our contribution and development model. Any company (at any level of membership) can contribute code, but must do so under an open-source, royalty-free license.
Because of our diverse members, the process of getting consensus during development is more time-consuming but this process also seeds the market for that platform at the same time.
In other words, all of the wrangling and competitive positioning happens within the LiMo Foundation's development process, which serves as a microcosm (and refinery) of the larger mobile ecosystem. This walled-garden open-source approach--one that helps to coordinate "crowdsourcing"--to development promises to yield a platform that reflects the diverse industry that supports it.
LiMo, of course, is not alone. It faces significant competition from the concerted efforts of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others. But as the industry has reset to a new expectation of open development, LiMo stands to benefit.
As an agglomeration of corporate interests, LiMo strikes me as more akin to Eclipse or the Linux Foundation than to Mozilla. Having grown up in the embedded Linux market with Lineo, I can appreciate its attempts to halt the fragmentation that has long plagued the mobile/embedded Linux market.
Given the swelling size of its membership and the new devices being shipped with LiMo's software, apparently I'm not alone.
Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.
I came across news this afternoon about the LiMo Foundation endorsing the Open Mobile Terminal Platform specification, and I realized that I didn't care. It's probably big news, but I couldn't get excited.
I feel the same way about most things that come out of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF), but probably because the ASF isn't one for making big announcements (except when it collects cash from Microsoft). Even so, I know the ASF is a hugely important organization. Its only "problem" is that it lacks an active public relations team. But I doubt it sees this as a problem.
The Symbian Foundation, too, shows promise, but it has also been somewhat quiet.
Now contrast these organizations with the Linux Foundation, Eclipse, and Mozilla. All three provide effective, though different, examples of what an open-source foundation should be doing. They're active. They're noisy. They're influential and even critical to the development of key open-source projects.
What do they have in common? Well, each has strong leaders, both technical and business management. Each has a limited but important mission. (Here's the Mozilla Foundation's mission.) Each has the trust and funding of key constituents that contribute both code and cash. And each publicly advocates their projects.
I've suggested before that Eclipse offers a vision of open-source development to come. If anything, this belief grows daily, but it's not just about Eclipse. Foundations offer a way to make open-source development more corporate (organized in such a way that commercial vendors can participate with fewer reservations) without becoming commercial, a turn-off for many would-be code contributors.
Understanding how successful open-source foundations function, and why they succeed while lesser peers fail, is therefore critical to understanding the future of open-source development. Mozilla, Eclipse, and the Linux Foundation offer glimpses of good things to come. As for the other open-source foundations...I think they still have work to do.
While unit sales of mobile handsets are growing, as Ars Technica reports, the leading mobile operating system, Symbian, is on the decline. Perhaps it's time for Symbian to accelerate its plans to open source the operating system?
Symbian's dominance in the smartphone space has been taking a hit lately at the expense of other platforms, including Windows Mobile, the iPhone, and open-source alternatives that reduce licensing costs and offer more flexibility. Symbian's business model and development strategy were out of step with the direction in which the industry was collectively moving....
This prompted Symbian's move toward open source, one that seems to be progressing slowly, perhaps due to the search for an executive director for the Symbian Foundation. With Google starting to get its act together on Android, as well as LiMo, Wind River, and other Linux alternatives kicking in, Symbian doesn't have much time.
Symbian needs to not only improve its operating system (OS) story with open source, but it also should look at how it can facilitate the mobile web, similar to what Google is doing for the "PC web" with Chrome. Given my involvement with Volantis, an open-source mobile content optimization company, it's perhaps not surprising that I believe one step would be to blend Symbian's OS with an open-source mobilization effort like Volantis' Ubik.
In other words, take two steps forward - open OS and open mobile content - at the same time to leapfrog other competition content to take just one step forward (open OS). When competing with Apple, in particular, which has made the mobile web less "mobile" with the rising iPhone, Symbian needs more than just an OS.
Google recognizes this with Android and is heavily investing in an application market. Symbian doesn't have the focus to be able to worry about applications, at least not now. It could, however, open the web. Ubik (or some other solution) could help.
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?
With a 47.9 percent stake in Symbian, the leading mobile platform that it co-founded in 1998 and which today powers some 206 million mobile phones, Nokia has long championed it at the expense of rival platforms such as Linux.
No longer.
The mobile-phone maker is increasingly selecting Linux for Internet-enabled mobile devices, with its CFO declaring of Linux, "It's going to be terribly important."
... Read more
Mozilla has started making noise about the mobile browser market, and just turned up the volume a bit more by joining the mobile Linux trade group, LiMo Foundation. It's not all that significant in and of itself, except that it clearly demonstrates that "Minimo" (now called Fennec) is finally set to break free of its Windows Mobile shackles.
Finally.
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