Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Monday, August 28, 2006
Motorola goes with Linux
Engadget Mobile is commenting on Motorola's intentions to use Linux in most of its phones.
Quote: "Furthermore, Motorola's not planning on relegating their Linux platform to low-cost devices"
No of course not. Reasons:
- Linux adds costs in terms of more memory and possibly also CPU power (compared to simple RTOS's and ditto applications that mass market phones use).
- Switching to Linux is in itself a huge cost, but of course gives long term advantages. Motorola has already done that work, so they are home free.
- There's a shortage of mobile applications (like WAP, MMS, etc) for Linux, hence they need to be licensed or developed, the same way as for proprietary OSs/platforms.
- Linux doesn't have any mobile-adapted UI, so you need to add Trolltech Qt/Qtopia, your own solution, or other.
- Even Qtopia doesn't include any advanced applications ... again like WAP 2.0 and MMS, nor Java ME (that all phones must have today).
...so saying that Linux is for inexpensive phones is an oxymoron.
More valuable is its powerful and scalable functionality and the fact that at least desktop applications and developers exist in abundance. Of course, if you use a mobile UI (possibly developed in-house) you need to rewrite the applications heavily. Even worse if the UI is proprietary.
Developers that know Linux from the desktop side can easily move to the mobile environment, but on the other hand learning a new application platform and even a new programming language is easy, so that's more of a religious/conservative statement.
Then we could also discuss how free software under the GNU license really is when you make changes to it, and how well community-driven development of software works when talking new technology areas. My experience is: badly, as there are no critical targets the developers need to hit, and relying on open source projects' time plans is to risk your salary, literally, unless you take control of the further development of that piece of software, like Nokia did with its new mobile browser.
Is Nokia likely to switch to Linux in the near term? I don't think so. Nokia is the main user of Symbian OS, and it's a very powerful platform that's already well adapted to mobile requirements.
Motorola to support Linux on half of future models - Engadget Mobile
Quote: "Furthermore, Motorola's not planning on relegating their Linux platform to low-cost devices"
No of course not. Reasons:
- Linux adds costs in terms of more memory and possibly also CPU power (compared to simple RTOS's and ditto applications that mass market phones use).
- Switching to Linux is in itself a huge cost, but of course gives long term advantages. Motorola has already done that work, so they are home free.
- There's a shortage of mobile applications (like WAP, MMS, etc) for Linux, hence they need to be licensed or developed, the same way as for proprietary OSs/platforms.
- Linux doesn't have any mobile-adapted UI, so you need to add Trolltech Qt/Qtopia, your own solution, or other.
- Even Qtopia doesn't include any advanced applications ... again like WAP 2.0 and MMS, nor Java ME (that all phones must have today).
...so saying that Linux is for inexpensive phones is an oxymoron.
More valuable is its powerful and scalable functionality and the fact that at least desktop applications and developers exist in abundance. Of course, if you use a mobile UI (possibly developed in-house) you need to rewrite the applications heavily. Even worse if the UI is proprietary.
Developers that know Linux from the desktop side can easily move to the mobile environment, but on the other hand learning a new application platform and even a new programming language is easy, so that's more of a religious/conservative statement.
Then we could also discuss how free software under the GNU license really is when you make changes to it, and how well community-driven development of software works when talking new technology areas. My experience is: badly, as there are no critical targets the developers need to hit, and relying on open source projects' time plans is to risk your salary, literally, unless you take control of the further development of that piece of software, like Nokia did with its new mobile browser.
Is Nokia likely to switch to Linux in the near term? I don't think so. Nokia is the main user of Symbian OS, and it's a very powerful platform that's already well adapted to mobile requirements.
Motorola to support Linux on half of future models - Engadget Mobile
