Handset and PDA manufacturers and mobile applications and infrastructure vendors are all adding support for Linux, but the real driver for Linux is Java.

Linux/Java at Motorola

Motorola and Sharp are the most active players among the manufacturers showing more than a passing interest in Linux. Motorola is developing the A760 handset based on MontaVista Software's Linux Professional Edition 3.0 OS, running a Java application development environment. The A760, a multimedia device with PDA functionality, will be rolled out by the end of this year, initially with mobile operators in China, says Mala Chandra, Motorola PCS' director of software solutions.

Chandra told MM that there is strong government support in China for Linux and that the operators have expressed interest in hearing about Motorola's Linux+Java strategy.

Motorola intends to roll out the Linux+Java environment over the next few months into as much of its portfolio as possible, Chandra says, with a focus on making it a standard operating environment for Motorola devices.

But the company will also continue to support other operating systems, such as Qualcomm's BREW operating environment.

Linux at Sharp

Meanwhile, Sharp has developed three series of Linux-based Zaurus PDAs.

The SL-C700 series devices are selling in Japan, while the SL-5500 was launched in the U.S. in March 2002, followed by European markets, including the UK and Germany. Sharp added the SL-5600 in the U.S. in February, but has reportedly discontinued the SL-5500 in Europe and has not said whether it will launch the SL-5600 in the region. It appears that the U.S. is responding well to the devices, however, and a spokesman says the company is considering launching the SL-C700 series there.

Sharp is also working with IT vendor SAP (MM, 11 Jul, 2003), and it says it hopes to sell half a million Linux-based Zaurus PDAs globally each year on the back of the partnership.

While Sharp has launched its Linux-based devices in Europe and the U.S., as well as Asia, it seems that the Asian market in particular provides a significant opportunity for Linux.

Linux Devices in Asia

The founding members of the recently formed CE Linux Forum are mainly Asia-based companies, including Matsushita, Sony, Hitachi, NEC, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba. This is indicative of the strong hold Linux has in that market, Chandra says. But Motorola is not a member of CELF, and Chandra would not reveal whether the company intends to join.

CELF will focus on consumer electronics in general, not just mobile devices, according to Scott Smyers, chairman of the CELF steering committee and vice president of Sony's network- and system-architecture group. CELF has not set itself up to compete with Symbian or Microsoft, though Smyers says there is potential for CELF to play a larger role in the terminals space.

CELF was created after Sony and Matsushita realized that rather than each independently solving problems for embedded Linux for devices, separately releasing code to the open-source community, it would be more efficient to continue that development work together.

Smyers says that the founding members of CELF didn't purposely exclude any vendors. “There has been tremendous interest, and we see a lot of companies applying for membership,” he says.

The appeal of Linux for mobile devices is that it is a flexible OS that is scalable and supports numerous application programming interfaces, including Java, and its heritage in Unix means there is an established community of developers.

Teleca, Access and Opera have all developed their browsers for mobile devices in Linux. Mobile video company PacketVideo has also ported its video and audio players to Linux. It is the combination of two open standards, Java and Linux, that Motorola says will be a powerful draw for developers.

Analysts see Java-Linux link

Gartner analyst Ben Wood says network operators are interested in Linux, but in order to use the OS as a platform for delivering applications in Java rather than write applications based on the OS. Similarly, Smyers says many companies lament that they need to support a large number of OSes for the variety of products they manufacture.

“From that perspective, there are a lot of factors that can speed Linux into mobile devices,” Smyers says. As opposed to Symbian, the Linux source code is royalty-free, which means it can be a low-cost development environment depending on whether a company creates its own Linux OS or licenses it from a company such as MontaVista. Developers are also more able to influence the features of the OS, and some actively seek an alternative to Microsoft.

Linux might play a key role in the enterprise mobile data market, with companies such as IBM working with Sharp and MontaVista Software to extend enterprise applications to mobile devices. Corporates will find compelling the fact that they can deploy such applications to low-cost terminals, maintains Angus McIntyre, IBM's manager for embedded systems in the company's pervasive computing division. “I think the Linux devices will keep the proprietary devices very honest,” McIntyre adds.

It's possible that Linux will gain market share in Asia, especially in China, whereas Symbian might become dominant in Europe and Windows Mobile in North America. “I think we will see a very interesting 12-18 months as manufacturers struggle with the challenge of selecting the appropriate OS for the appropriate device,” Wood says.

Copyright © 2003 Informa UK Limited. Reproduced by LinuxDevices.com with permission from the Mobile Media newsletter.

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