limofoundation.org

The limofoundation.org welcomes the news of Google’s mobile initiative. We believe Google’s entry into the mobile industry and the launch of the Open Handset Alliance further validate mobile Linux as the foundation technology enabling convergence within and beyond mobile.

LiMo has been created by the mobile industry to deliver an open, Linux-based middleware platform for use by the whole mobile industry and speed creation of compelling next-generation user experiences.

LiMo launched in January with the backing of a strong and balanced cadre of Founder Members – Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone – and has rapidly secured broad industry engagement with 21 members now signed.

LiMo is a dedicated alliance of mobile technology leaders working together to create a common Linux based software platform from market proven technologies that are found in members’ existing commercial products. NTT DoCoMo recently announced the N905i and P905i handsets that already use LiMo platform technology and we expect more LiMo devices to be deployed in the coming months.

LiMo is founded on a shared understanding among mobile industry leaders that the value line on handsets has been redrawn. In the mobile industry today, most differentiating value within software lies in the layer of applications and services shaping next-generation user experiences that sits above the middleware that is common across handset vendors and models.

LiMo’s role is to deliver that common middleware platform. We believe this can most effectively be achieved through the cooperative development and open-source licensing of mobile Linux based technology, rather than through commercially licensed, proprietary platforms.

LiMo believes that the Open Handset Alliance is in concurrence with these core beliefs. LiMo and the Open Handset Alliance, in fact, share membership across the mobile Linux ecosystem. There are no philosophical or technological obstacles preventing LiMo and the Open Handset Alliance from working together synergistically.