The battle lines are being drawn in a contest that will almost certainly define the design of mobile phones over the next five years.
Many in the industry will be pleased to see the emergence of Linux and other open source software as the basis of most mobile phone developments. But if anyone thought the open source approach would do away with the commercial battle for control of the mobile phone platform, they are likely to be disappointed.
All the major software companies are lining up behind a set of different so-called “standard” approaches to what will be the first open source mobile phone platform.
Microsoft, Symbian – soon to be owned by Nokia – and Google are in the contest, and last week Intel made its intentions clear when it acquired a small but significant London-based Linux open source software development company called OpenedHand.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/portal/news/article.php?story=20080909132347820