The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), the global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux and open source software, today announced that Chinese handset manufacturer Datang Mobile will join OSDL as an active member of the Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI).

“Linux is being deployed on mobile devices shipped in China at a much higher rate than in any other region,” said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. “Datang Mobile will bring increased representation from one of the most active and dynamic markets in the world, and its technical and business expertise will accelerate the adoption of Mobile Linux.”

The Diffusion Group predicts that by 2010, mobile Linux handset market share will grow to 26.6 percent, eclipsing SymbianOS — although how they figure that is not entirely clear (the old chart, above, not withstanding). Other operating systems for mobile handsets include Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and RIM

Datang’s largely developed TD-SCDMA, a 3G protocol using time division and CDMA, which it contributed to the the ITU’s IMT-2000 (3G) specification.

At the Open Source in Mobile event in Amsterdam, earlier this month, Taiwanese hardware manufacturer FIC introduced the Neo1973 smartphone, running a Linux-based environment called OpenMoko.

The idea — as with Trolltech’s Greenphone (right), announced in August — is to provide developers with a fully programmable Linux-based handset for which they can develop applications. Mobile open source software company Funambol (pronounced “foo-nahm’-ball”), for example, has announced it will provide push email and mobile applications for the device.

Taiwan’s First International Computer (FIC) PDA-styled phone will apparently cost about $350 (£184) — half the price of the Greenphone.

Their Neo1973 smartphone is compatible with GSM networks at 850, 900,1,800 and 1,900MHZ, so it should work in Europe, the US and much of Asia.

While Microsoft and Symbian have integrated off-the-shelf mobile phone software with code libraries, multimedia and communications protocols as well as a healthy third-party software ecosystem, Linux software for phones is generally considered to be more flexible, but less complete.

The competing Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS) and the OSDL’s Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI) have pledged to align their organizations closely, to better improve and standardize Linux for mobile phones.

Om Malik thinks the happy talk about “open” cellular networks is just that — talk:

Verizon is making money from the network; YouTube is likely profiting from this deal, but are they sharing the goodies with folks whose videos will end up on Verizon handsets? The agreement shows that the wireless carriers will continue to maintain an iron-fist like control over their networks; showing the cunning of a Night Club bouncer, deciding when and who is allowed to cross the velvet rope. When a brand as big as YouTube has to fall on its knees and play ball with Verizon (on carrier’s terms), what chance do others have?

Frankly, that is not going to change. The utopians are looking at the [X-Series from cellular operator 3] as a sign of a revolution, though in the end it might be a simple mutiny by a company, whose financial quandary might have something to do with its decision to break ranks with the global mobile oligopoly.

Linux Devices lists some other Linux phones.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 3:39 pm.