Software Everywhere — David Beers on Mobile Computing

Haven't had much time to write lately, but I did want to give a pointer to an excellent BusinessWeek article that does a good job capturing why Linux is such a credible threat in the smartphone OS market and why collaborations like OSDL's Mobile Linux Initiative are so important. PalmSource isn't mentioned in the article but if you keep the idea of the Palm OS middleware being ported to Linux in mind as you read I think it's quite clear what PalmSource is bringing to the table there.

Motorola, which is doing extremely well with its new Linux phones, had some interesting things to say about their decision to go with Linux after releasing many phones with Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems:

"Our goal is to drive [Linux] to as many phones as possible," Motorola's Besio says. That conclusion was reached after a series of strategy sessions earlier this year, when company executives drew up a short list of the features they wanted in an operating system. While Microsoft and Symbian each met a few, only Linux covered them all, Besio says.

High on Motorola's wish list: running most, if not all, phones on a single, easy-to-maintain operating system. Currently, there's little uniformity in software for cell phones. Most of it is built in-house and varies from model to model, even within the same handset maker. That means applications, such as messaging or games, have to be rewritten for each phone, tying up developers and limiting innovation.

With regard to the various Linux groups that are being formed to address issues of standardization, I have a question about PalmSource's involvement. Partnering with the likes of Trolltech, MontaVista, Wind River and Motorola under the auspices of OSDL makes perfect sense, since that collaboration will mainly be about the kernel and various low-level services that any Linux phone platform could share without sacrificing differentiation. My question is what PalmSource plans to contribute to the Linux Phone Standardisation Forum (LiPS), which is focused on the applications layer for Linux phones. Since PalmSource's special sauce is the application layer I expected that work to be mostly proprietary. Is their LiPS membership a sign that they'll be opening more of their source than originally thought? Are there parts of even their application framework that they can contribute to Linux to make future Palm OS phones more interoperable with other Linux phones? If so, how do they avoid giving too much away and eroding their competitive position?