Mobile Linux Group Launches

Standards forum promotes use of Linux on phones and other mobile devices.
Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
A group of companies have launched the Linux Phone Standards Forum, the newest effort to create standards aimed at fostering the use of Linux on mobile devices.

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The goal of the Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS) Forum is to create application programming interfaces that will allow developers to build applications that will interoperate acrossLinux handsets made by all manufacturers.
In addition, the forum will work with the Open Mobile Terminal Platform group, an association of operators that sets baseline mobile phone standards, so that applications written for Linux handsets can also work with applications used on phones running other operating systems, such as Symbian or Microsoft Windows Mobile.
Founding members of LiPSinclude PalmSource, France Telecom, Orange, TIM Italia, ARM Holdings, Jaluna, Open-Plug, and Montavista Software.
From Handsets to Smart Phones
LiPS expects to release the APIs in a series of profiles for devices ranging from basic consumer handsets to high-functionality smart phones. The group will also create a testing process to certify devices as LiPS-compliant.
However, the LiPS Forum won‘t join any of the international standardization groups for what its leaders call practical reasons.
"It takes so long with those international standards bodies," said Michael Gien, a vice president on the LiPS executive committee and the cofounder and executive vice president of corporate development for Jaluna, a company that develops virtualization software for mobile phones. "Our schedule is very aggressive."
The first device profile, for the low-cost consumer market, is expected to become available in the second half of next year, with initial LiPS devices coming to the market in 2007.
LiPS Forum leaders emphasize that the group is not trying to standardize the applications layer.
"We believe the applications themselves are ways that most operators and phone manufacturers want to differentiate themselves," said Jean-Marc Holder, treasurer of LiPS Forum and also director of marketing for PalmSource in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. By defining APIs, operators can be sure that when they introduce applications the underlying support software on all of their handsets is consistent, he said.
Major handset vendors are notably absent from the initial line-up of LiPS members. John Ostrem, a LiPS board member and a lead scientist at PalmSource, hinted that some handset manufacturers were interested in joining the forum but hadn‘t yet worked through the necessary internal approvals to allow an official announcement. Motorola is one major handset maker that hasexpressed commitment to Linux, already selling millions of Linux handsets in China.
Promoting Linux
The launch of the LiPS Forum follows the recent creation of another organization whose aim also is to help spur the mobile Linux industry. In mid-October, the Open Source Development Labs started the Mobile Linux Initiative, a working group designed to optimize the Linux operating system for handheld devices. That group is working to unify developments around the mobile Linux kernel, focusing on such functions as power management, boot time, and system footprint. Leaders of both groups say their work will complement each other and will help achieve the same goal of encouraging more use of Linux on handheld devices.
In Europe, where the idea of using Linux on mobile phones only recently gained momentum, the interest has come from the operator community, say LiPS Forum leaders.
"In Europe, the main driver for Linux phones is the operators," Gien said. In addition to being able to sell phones with recognized brands such as Nokia‘s, or running well-known operating systems such as Microsoft‘s, operators are interested in building their own self-branded phones, he said. While operators have done so historically, and Orange, for example, sells self-branded phones, operators are interested in lowering the cost of producing such phones and targeting the lower end market with them, he said. "If they can provide the specification and design and have the phone made by some OEM out of China, it‘d be much cheaper," Gien said, adding that Linux can help them do that.
The fact that Linux is open source means that operators can also have more control over the development of phones. "It‘s a platform that can‘t be controlled by a single entity like Microsoft," said Ostrem. "It‘s open source so they can modify it to what they want."
Interest in Linux handsets is strongest in China, mainly due to their low cost but also because the Chinese government encourages the use of software that doesn‘t make companies beholden to Microsoft or other developers, Ostrem said. He was one of the founders of China MobileSoft, a mobile phone software company acquired by PalmSource in February. "All the major handset makers and [manufacturers] are looking at Linux-based phones in China," he said.
U.S. operators are only beginning to consider mobile Linux. "I think a lot of them are still trying to figure out a strategy in terms of Linux," Ostrem said. "They‘re still a bit behind the European operators."
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