The LiMo Foundation is talking up its commitment from six major operator members to deliver handsets using the LiMo Platform. The major operators planning such deployment of LiMo devices include NTT DOCOMO, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefónica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.
To date 33 commercial handset models have been certified as LiMo Compliant, including 10 being displayed at Mobile World Congress by NEC and Panasonic together with new prototype models from LG Electronics and Samsung.
Some observers don’t take Verizon’s support of LiMO seriously. After all, the company regularly dismantles WiFi and tethering via Bluetooth or cable. Verizon’s support of “open architecture” may likely be half-hearted and limited, filled with a variety of “gotchas”.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is readying a smartphone assault on Apple with an online marketplace akin to Apple’s App Store or the Android Market. But Android, with the Open Handset Alliance, and Nokia’s Symbian, with the Open Symbian Foundation may be the players to watch.
Nokia’s Symbian is the dominant mobile operating system, followed by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, and Research In Motion’s RIM. But new contenders Apple, Google and LiMo are trying to take bigger bites out of those players’ market shares, says Unstrung.
Archos will use TI’s OMAP3 processor in an upcoming Android Internet Media Tablet, reports Engadget. It also doubles as a phone.
To be unveilled at the big Mobile World Congress next week, it features a five-inch screen, up to a 500GB hard drive, a battery capable of 7 seven hours of video playback, and Flash support. The underlying OS will be Android, but Archos plans to really beef up the media features — there’s even mention of HD video playback.
ARCHOS says its new ultra-thin Internet Media Tablet will feature:
- PC-like Internet experience enhanced by a high-resolution 5″ screen and full-width page viewing
- Adobe Flash and Flash Video support, full screen
- Access whenever and wherever to TV, movies, photos, music and games
- Uncompromised TV recording and High Definition (HD) playback, all formats
- Hundreds of hours of video storage, up to 500 GB
- Innovative design: compact 10-mm ultra-thin tablet
- Long battery life, 7 hours’ video playback
- 3.5G 7.2 Mb/s HSUPA
- Laptop-like performance from the first implementation of OMAP3440 processor based on the ARM Cortex superscalar microprocessor and DSP.
Put that on your handlebars. On the Road.
Related Dailywireless articles include; Mobile World Congress: Handsets, Mobile World Congress: HSPA, WiMAX & LTE Faceoff, Nvidia: Turbo Boost for Android and WinMobile, Netbooks Embed Broadband, The 8 Megapixel Phone, Cisco Beamforms Russia & Kazakhstan, TeleNav Does Turn-By-Turn on Android and 2009 Mobile World Congress 2009.
