Trolltech announced today that more than fifty companies are currently developing or shipping Linux-based devices using its Qtopia graphical application platform software, including more than twenty mobile phones. These successes signal “a surge in the market for handsets built on the popular open source Linux operating system,” the company says.

“We think that 2005 is going to be a real breakout year for Linux on cellphones,” Trolltech CEO Haavard Nord told LinuxDevices.com. “There seems to be a huge interest in Linux. Linux is just now getting mature for the market. Currently, we're working with more than 20 manufacturers [who are] building Linux phones today,” he said.

Motorola has already been shipping Linux phones in China, and has achieved its initial objectives there, according to Nord. “We expect that in 2005, Motorola is going to start shipping Linux phones outside of China,” Nord added.

Regarding the embedded Linux operating system itself, Nord said, “There's a very clear trend. Many of [the handset makers], when they start their projects, are rolling their own [Linux]. But when they get serious about producing a phone, they very often, in the majority of cases, go to MontaVista to have a Linux kernel customized for their hardware. Things that they typically have trouble with, if they roll their own Linux, are power management and boot-up/start-up time. We think that MontaVista can play a big role there, in helping them to customize and make Linux really work on their handsets.”

Examples of Qtopia design wins

One particularly high-profile recent Qtopia success is the Archos PMA400 Pocket Media Assistant, a Linux/Qtopia-based portable multimedia player/recorder unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last month. The PMA400 boasts a built-in hard drive, audio and video record/playback, wireless capabilities, and Qtopia-based PIM (personal information management) applications. According to Trolltech, Qtopia serves as the device's complete application environment, providing the user interface, PIM suite, and desktop-PC data synchronization.

Most development projects are kept under wraps until products are nearing production, so Trolltech is limited in what it can discuss publicly. However, the following are some examples of device-makers using Trolltech's Qtopia and Qt/Embedded software on Linux-based devices or reference platforms, that Trolltech is currently able to disclose (alphabetically arranged) . . .

• Datang mobile phone reference platform — Datang Mobile standardized on Qtopia in a new Linux-based mobile phone reference platform. The first phone based on the Datang Mobile TD-SCDMA Linux mobile phone platform has been available since October, 2004 in China, according to Trolltech. Datang is China's government-owned TEM (telecommunications equipment manufacturer).
• Enteos smartphone platforms — Enteos, a leading Italian developer and manufacturer of mobile phone, according to Trolltech, is currently developing two Linux-based smartphone platforms incorporating Qtopia Phone Edition and Qt/Embedded on Freescale and STMicroelectronics application processors. The first of these, the Enteos i-GO900, is expected to begin shipping in Q4, 2005, Trolltech says.
• Leadtek IP videophones — Leadtek will use Qtopia as the standard software platform for its next-generation Linux-based IP videophones and other devices, according to Trolltech. Leadtek recently announced the world's first large scale deployment of video telephony with France Telecom, the leading French telecommunications provider.
• Motorola — Motorola used Trolltech's Qt/Embedded Linux development platform as the graphical application foundation for its E680 (near-right) and A780 (far-right) mobile phones. The E680 and A780 represent the latest in a series of handsets Motorola is building on the Trolltech/Linux platform, following the extremely popular Motorola A760 phone.
• Ningbo Bird mobile phones — Ningbo Bird, the largest domestic manufacturer of mobile phones in China, with 8 to 9 percent of the Chinese phone market according to Trolltech, has standardized on Qtopia as the software platform for all of its Linux-based mobile phones. According to Trolltech, Ningbo Bird expects to launch its first Linux/Qtopia handset, the E899 smartphone, by mid-2005. Commenting on the Ningbo Bird design-win, Trolltech CEO Haavard Nord said, “This is a huge win for Qtopia. China is the largest wireless market on the planet and Bird is the largest local supplier and exporter of mobile handsets in China.” Ningbo Bird's Shangguan Yanjun added, “The rapid rise of Ningbo Bird is attributed to our strong emphasis on product innovation, and Linux with the Qtopia application platform lets us take innovation to a new level,” added “With Qtopia and Linux, we can easily modify the user interface and functions on the mobile phone, giving us the flexibility to develop unique and differentiated Linux handsets. We expect that Linux will be a dominant platform in China and throughout the world for mobile devices.”
• Philips smartphone reference platform — Qtopia is included in the embedded Linux software portion of the Philips Nexperia Cellular System Solution 9000, a hardware/software reference platform used by device-makers to develop mobile smartphones and high-end feature phones based on Philips microprocessors and other ICs. Qtopia is also part of the Philips Nexperia Partner Program.
• Samsung/Infineon 3G smartphone reference design — Last week, Samsung Electronics, Infineon Technologies, Emuzed, and Trolltech jointly announced what is claimed to be “the world's first Linux UMTS/EDGE dual-mode smartphone reference design based on the Linux operating system.” The production-ready platform showcases advanced 3G and multimedia services including UMTS/EDGE voice/video calls, video streaming, web-browsing, ultra-fast multimedia, 3D-audio, and 3D-gaming, and essentially comprises a production-ready blueprint for 3G smartphones.
• Texas Instruments OMAP processor support — Trolltech announced last September that Qtopia had been ported to TI's OMAP processor family, giving manufacturers a powerful Linux/Qtopia platform for high-performance mobile wireless devices.
• Yuhua TelTech “Normandy” smartphone — Yuhua TelTech, a top ODM (original design manufacturer) for mobile devices, announced last September that it had embedded Qtopia in a new Linux-based “content rich” smartphone (the “Normandy”), which is expected to become available during the first quarter of this year.

About Qtopia

Trolltech describes Qtopia as a complete, customizable development environment and user interface for mobile phones and personal digital assistants. “Qtopia lets manufacturers and service providers cost-effectively develop Linux-based devices while maintaining complete control of branding and user interface design,” the company says. “Qtopia extends the flexibility and cost-savings benefits of Linux to the mobile market, serving as an alternative to proprietary software platforms such as Windows Mobile and Symbian.”

Qtopia originally gained popularity as a mobile application environment for PDAs and palmtops such as Sharp's Zaurus (including the recently discontinued US model, the SL-6000L) and other Linux PDAs. With PDA sales falling and mobile phone sales growing, Trolltech wisely adapted Qtopia for mobile phones, launching a phone-specific version in May of 2004. Trolltech will continue to offer Qtopia Phone Edition under a commercial license only, and the company's most recent update to Qtopia — the version 2.1 release in November — mainly added features for mobile phones, such as reduced footprint and MMS support.

Qtopia Phone Edition (QPE) is a version Qtopia optimized for mobile phones with smaller display screens, low memory use, and both touchscreen- and keypad-based user input. QPE is highly configurable, Trolltech says, and is designed for minimal key input. QPE includes contact manager, calendar, and task list PIM applications, games, and various productivity, messaging, telephony, multimedia, synchronization, and configuration functions. Further information about QPE, including screenshots, is available here.

Trolltech recently released the PDA version of Qtopia 2.1 under the open source GNU GPL (general public license), making it available as a free download. However, the company is continuing to offer Qtopia 2.1 PDA Edition under a commercial license, which includes support and maintenance.

Trolltech is showcasing its Qtopia platform and other embedded Linux related software this week at two conferences, the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, and the Linuxworld conference in Boston.