Linux has an advantage over other mobile operating systems: a far-reaching community of developers ready to write smartphone applications. That group dynamic helps explain why Fujitsu, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, and Samsung all make Linux-based phones.
But there's a problem: too many Linux variants from Motorola, SavaJe Technologies, TrollTech, and others. Applications designed for one Linux- based phone generally don't work on another. "It's a big disadvantage today for Linux compared with Symbian and Windows Mobile," admits Haila Wang, president of the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum, formed 14 months ago to create specs for mobile Linux.
Two efforts are under way to create an industry-standard mobile Linux. Access, a mobile software company in Japan that acquired PalmSource, the maker of the Palm OS, plans to introduce a Linux for smartphones--called the Access Linux Platform--in the first half of this year, using the standards set by the LiPS Forum. Access' Palm OS, now available on Palm Treo phones, has fallen to No. 5 in the smartphone OS market, accounting for only 2% of worldwide sales in the third quarter of 2006, compared with 4.5% during the same quarter a year earlier, according to Canalys. (Linux accounts for 17% of the smartphone market.) Access intends to give the Palm OS new life by putting a Palm emulation layer on its Access Linux Platform.
"One of the reasons behind our migration to Linux is to have a platform that's highly reliable, highly secure, and robust, which are the key features that IT departments look for in a mobile OS," says Mike Kelley, senior VP of engineering at Access. The company has integrated more than 120 open source components into the Access Linux Platform and optimized them for smartphones. It's also added features such as a "service access policy," which controls access to smartphone resources, to make its new platform more secure than the Palm OS, Kelley says.
The transition has some Palm OS users concerned. Mark Spruill, an IT director at Mighty Distributing System of America, a company that sources auto parts from manufacturers and delivers them to technicians, worries about his company's investment in Palm-based applications. "I don't want to convert all my code to run on another OS if I don't have to," Spruill says. A portion of the company's salespeople use Palm OS-based Treo 650 smartphones with a point-of-sale application.
The Access Linux Platform will be able to run applications created for Palm OS via the emulation layer. With more than 400,000 Palm developers and 29,000 Palm apps, "we understood that maintaining compatibility was critical," says Didier Diaz, senior VP of strategic product management for Access.
Palm Inc., maker of Treo smartphones, has made no commitment to the Access Linux Platform. Last month, Palm agreed to license a version of the Palm OS called Garnet from Access. Current Analysis speculates that Palm might convert Garnet into a software layer on top of Windows, Symbian, or Linux. Palm will say only that it plans to create "future variations" of the Palm OS.
