NEC will use Trolltech's recently announced Greensuite phone stack in a new 3G W-CDMA handset reference design. The “Medity” design is part of NEC's PlatformOvia family of hardware/software reference designs for handsets, digital audio-visual equipment, and automotive infotainment systems, many of which use Linux along with Trolltech's Qtopia middleware, according to the companies.

As with previous PlatformOvia designs, the Medity handset reference design will include chipsets, operating system software, and middleware, with the aim of helping handset manufacturers focus on operator customizations and other value-adds.

NEC launched its PlatformOvia reference design program in mid-2005, and Trolltech has long been a PlatformOvia partner. NEC says Trolltech's Qtopia software and middleware products have “enjoyed widespread recognition and respect, and are currently used in millions of units worldwide.”

The Medity handset design will be the first PlatformOvia design to use the Trolltech Greensuite, unveiled just days ago. Greensuite aims to deliver pre-integrated third-party software components on top of a forthcoming 4.2 release of Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition, with the aim of minimizing software integration work and consolidating licensing requirements for handset vendors.

Greensuite is expected to ship in mid-2007; in the meanwhile, NEC's Medity design will focus on a reference integration of Qtopia, Trolltech says.

Seiji Mitsuoka, VP of system software development at NEC, stated, “We are thrilled to be the first 3G mobile phone solution vendor to profit from the strengths of Qtopia and the Qtopia Greensuite initiative. Integrating a complete software stack with our best-of-breed platformOViA will expand our product offering with the aim of further easing the device development cycle for our customers.”

Haavard Nord, co-CEO of Trolltech, stated, “NEC Electronics' platformOViA is the perfect companion to our one-stop-shop software suite, [which provides] the freedom of Linux and a pre-integrated selection of best of breed technology.”

NEC's mobile phone business has struggled recently. The company has lost marketshare in the Japanese market to Toshiba and Sharp, according to a Bloomberg report, and several days ago it confirmed plans to exit the 2G and 2.5G phone markets in China.

Panasonic, another Japanese Linux mobile phone vendor, also recently bowed out of the China market, where Linux-based phones are increasingly available from Chinese companies that include Datang, Haier, and ZTE, among others.

 
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