Japanese mobile phone middleware specialist Aplix has formed a strategic alliance with MontaVista, and has taken an equity investment in the company. Aplix says its partnership with MontaVista will enable it to offer “fully integrated solutions” for all chipsets supported by MontaVista.

Additionally, MontaVista plans to provide development kits and testing tools optimized for Aplix's middleware framework, it says.

Aplix is best known for its widely deployed JBlend Java virtual machine (JVM). Las month, however, it licensed the MOAP (L) stack developed by NEC, Panasonic, and NTT DoCoMo, in a deal granting it both development rights and sublicensing rights.

The MOAP (L) stack has shipped in several generations of high-function Panasonic and NEC phones intended for use with NTT DoCoMo's 3G FOMA (“freedom of mobile access”) network. It is based on a MontaVista kernel, so Aplix's partnership with MontaVista could enable Aplix to offer pre-integrated stacks and/or integration services for one of the most mature Linux software stacks in the mobile phone market.

Aplix's longtime competitor in the Japanese JVM market, Access, which acquired Linux phone stack maker PalmSource last year, is currently focused on breaking into the market for complete Linux mobile phone software stacks, with its ALP (Access Linux Platform) technology and ecosystem.

Aplix was among half a dozen companies participating in MontaVista's $21M funding round, announced on Dec. 5. Additionally, Aplix announced carrier-specific reference implementations of its phone middleware in May, and in October unveiled a patent-pending platform virtualization technique aimed at phones and other mobile devices.

“This new alliance will help to accelerate the market penetration of multi-featured Linux-based mobile phones,” stated MontaVista CEO Thomas Kelly.

 
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