Orange has joined the LiMo Foundation which is bidding to support and accelerate the rollout of Linux in the mobile phone industry. 

The mobile phone operator joins Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, Access and Vodafone as founder members of the Mobile Linux industry group.   

According to Morgan Gillis, executive director, LiMo Foundation, Orange and fellowe new member Access "will make an invaluable contribution to delivering the LiMo Platform as a consistent, open source-based software platform that will benefit the entire mobile industry.”

Mobile Linux is gaining support as a cellular operating system from the handset industry. The increased focus on Mobile Linux shows the high level of interest from all segments of the cellular handset industry, including manufacturers, network operators and component suppliers.

This is demonstrated pretty clearly by the expanding membership of the LiMo Foundation, an industry group that was established in January of this year with the stated goal of developing a common Linux Platform.

"Orange was one of the first mobile operators to make significant strides in open source innovation,” commented Yves Maitre, senior vice president, devices, Orange. “We previously supported open source Mobile Linux through our participation in the LiPS Forum. Today, we believe that by participating in LiMo, we will accelerate the delivery of new and compelling mobile services.”

There are already two competing Mobile Linux groups - the LiMo Foundation and the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum - and now ARM has drawn companies from both camps to go off at a tangent to develop their own Linux-based open source platform for next-generation mobile applications.

Over the next 5 years, Linux is expected to be the fastest growing Smartphone operating system at a growth rate in excess of 75%, according to ABI Research.

A recent report forecasted that Linux-based OS will account for nearly 31% of all smart devices in the market by 2012 — representing more than 331 million cumulative shipments over the same period.

Launched in January 2007, LiMo Foundation is open to all vendors and service providers in the mobile communications marketplace, including device manufacturers, operators, chipset manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third-party developers.  

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