Linux has a bright future in the mobile phone industry, writes EDN Technical Editor Warren Webb, in a high-level feature. Linux is not right for every mobile phone, he says, but its technical and economic flexibility is accelerating its adoption in markets requiring lots of features in low-cost, small-footprint phones.

Linux powered about a quarter of all “feature phones” shipped in 2005, according to market analysts cited by Webb. Linux grew fastest in Asia, in phones from NEC, Panasonic, and Motorola, he notes. Meanwhile, mobile subscribers worldwide are expected to grow from 100 million to about 350 million, thanks largely to cellular rollouts in India, he says.

According to Webb, Linux's modular design enables phone designers to add more features, while maintaining a small firmware footprint. He cites popular features that include “multimedia recorders, players, short-range digital communications, messaging, position-location electronics, and thousands of application programs for work-related information management and personal amusement.”

Additional Linux advantages include royalty-free licensing, support for diverse embedded architectures, and a worldwide team of developer “ready to resolve integration issues,” among others, Webb writes.

Challenges to Linux's popularity in phones include the lack of single, standard implementation, due in part to the diversity of available open source GUIs, libraries, other software components, Webb says. Another issue is the need to isolate proprietary code from GPL-licensed code in devices where both are burned into a single ROM.

Webb's very professionally written report can be found here. For Webb's previous reports on the emergence of Linux in embedded, see the Related Stories below.

 
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