* How many Linux mobility groups does there need to be?
The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum – a group that wants to standardize Linux technology for the cell phone industry – received a boost to its membership last week with the addition of ZTE, the large Chinese handset maker, and Texas Instruments.
The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum – a group that wants to standardize Linux technology for the cell phone industry – received a boost to its membership last week with the addition of ZTE, the large Chinese handset maker, and Texas Instruments.
LiPS already includes such vendors as McAfee, semiconductor maker Spreadtrum Communications, telecom companies Purple Labs and Longcheer Holdings, and the carrier Telecom Italia. Texas Instruments is also participating in the goings on at LiPS meetings.
The strengthening of an organization that promotes Linux in cell phones would be a good thing – if there weren’t already a bunch of other efforts with the exact same purpose.
Already this year, big-name mobile vendors including Motorola, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung Electronics, NEC and Panasonic Mobile Communications banded together for the same purpose. The goal of the group, which has no formal name, is to develop and bring to market a common Linux-based platform and API set for Linux cell phones and smart phones. This also happens to be the goal of the Mobile Linux Initiative, which is run by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL, which brought us the Linux Desktop Initiative, and other standardization projects). And last month, A la Mobile, said it will release its own Linux-based mobile phone software stack in September.
The plethora of Linux mobility activity is a sign of healthy market and an indication of demand for Linux as an alternative to Symbian, Windows and RIM; it’s also another example of open-source market fragmentation.
This mirrors what’s going on in the Linux desktop market, where two divergent software packages exist – KDE and GNOME – and two different on-going projects are creating ways to make the two desktops more compatible – the Portland Project, and the Linux Standards Base. All of this is on top of the myriad desktop-focused Linux distributions that are available.
Choice is good. But unless mobility vendors consolidate their efforts on Linux, the mobile Linux market could end up as fragmented as its desktop cousin.
