The LiMo Foundation is not going away.
At LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco today, the foundation announced the release of several new Linux-based mobile handsets from Mototorola, NEC and Panasonic.
With the addition of Motorola’s Motozine ZN5, NEC’s Foma N906i, N906i?, N906iL and N706i, and Panasonic’s Foma P906i and N906i? — the total number of LiMo handsets is now 21. The new phones are the latest to ship with Release 1 of the LiMo Platform.
Several of these models incorporate mobile 2.0 features such as higher resolution displays, international 3G/High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) roaming capabilities, Global Positioning System (GPS), mobile TV and advanced video streaming, secure payment and advanced mail functionalities, the foundation announced.
LiMo’s Linux reference platform is one of several open source mobile platforms under development, including Google’s Android platform (also based on a Linux derivative) and Nokia’s Symbian which announced an open source thrust earlier this summer.
Some have suggested that LiMo — a foundation founded in 2007 by six mobile manufacturers which now has more than 50 backers — will fade away amidst competition from Google and Nokia. But LiMo said it has no intention of going away and notes that Nokia is a member of the LiMo Foundation.
