With the LiMo Foundation busy recruiting Mobile Linux developers, you might expect Google to join in the fun. Google’s Android, after all, is probably the most high profile Linux-based mobile OS and certainly the most highly anticipated.
Google, though, has other ideas.
Speaking at the Linux World conference in San Francisco, Google’s Eric Chu said that the company was not looking to join forces with rivals.
“Unification for the sake of unification is not the path we decided to go down,” said Chu at a Linux World ‘Mobile Marketplace’ panel discussion.
Chu also downplayed suggestions that Android development was slowing and the OS would not be ready for a Christmas 2008 releases, claiming that the code was 80% complete.
Purple Labs has announced today at the Mobile World Congress that its Purple Magic handset is now a certified LiMo Foundation device.
Founded in January 2007 by industry leaders (Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone), LiMo Foundation’s aim is to become the dominant provider of Linux based operating systems for mobile phones.
The Purple Magic handset is a sub $100 3G device that is set to act as a reference point for other handset manufacturers that want to accelerate time to market for low-cost 3G Linux based handsets.
For many people the concept of the Linux phone is a somewhat nebulous one. People know Symbian because of the mass adoption of Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets, the same goes for Windows Mobile which is a household name by virtue of Microsoft’s market penetration in the PC market.
The Purple Magic may be instrumental in propelling LiMo to similar levels of penetration though whether the public actually wants a Linux based handset is yet to be determined. Either way, packing video telephony, music playback, high-speed Internet browsing and video streaming, the Purple Magic should present a compelling argument for LiMo when it is launched later this year. Hit the Jump for more pictures.
Continue reading ‘Purple Magic handset brings LiMo’s vision of the Linux phone to MWC’
