LiMo lands seven new phones

The battle of open-source mobile systems continues to heat up. Motorola, NEC and Panasonic are rolling out seven new mobile handsets based on the LiMo (Linux for Mobile) software platform.

The handsets bring the total number of commercial LiMo-based devices to a respectable 21, according to the LiMo Foundation.

The new handsets are: Motorola Motozine ZN5; NEC Forma N906i, N906iμ, N906iL and N706i; and Panasonic Forma P906i and P706iμ.

Several of the models include features from the forthcoming 2.0 release of the Linux-based mobile platform such as higher resolution displays, 3G/High-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) roaming capabilities, GPS, mobile TV, and advanced video streaming. The 2.0 release is due to be published in late 2008 and completed early in 2009.

The alliance also added 11 new partners to the fold — Cellon, Esmertec, Freescale Semiconductor, Longcheer Holdings, MIZI Research, Movial Corporation, PacketVideo, SK Innoace, Telecom Italia, VirtualLogix, and ZTE. That bolsters the total number of partners in LiMo to 52.

LiMo is one of several Linux-based mobile alternatives to Google's Android. Linux is gaining some ground in the smartphone market thanks to potential customization, lower cost, support by multiple chipsets, and of course the strong developer community that comes along with it. ®