According to the latest report from ABI Research, Linux is set to be top dog in the mobile OS wars by 2013. The research firm predicts that Linux, led by Moblin, LiMo and Maemo, will be the OS for more than 50 million mobile Internet devices (MIDs) in five years.

ABI calls the MID market the “first real example of a greenfield situation” in that its believes all mobile OSs will start on “equal footing.” And the report expects mobile Linux to reign supreme due to its “flexibility, customization and very positive cost comparison to Windows Mobile.”

For more on the report check MobileCrunch

The LiMo Foundation announced seven new handsets today from Motorola, NEC and Panasonic Mobile Communications. With today’s announced phones, there are now 21 LiMo-based handsets available.

For the latest features and models check out the story at MobileCrunch.

Nokia announced today that it “plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own”  and then open the Symbian Foundation along with other device manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson, Motorola, AT&T, LG, and others. The foundation will be open to all developers and "will provide a unified platform with common UI framework” under the royalty-free Eclipse Public License.

The Symbian operating system is currently the most widely used in the world, found on over 50% of “smart mobile device” handsets. This move to open source will place Symbian in competition with Google’s Android platform and the LiMo platform, although only “selected components” will be available at the Symbian Foundation’s launch. The rest of the platform will by fully opened up over the next two years.

Verizon has signed up as the final member on the board of directors of the LiMo Foundation, a group founded by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone “to deliver an open and globally consistent software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use by the whole industry to catalyze next-generation mobile consumer experiences.”

I’m all for openness, but what happens when we suddenly find ourselves with a dozen different “open” mobile alliances like this? Hopefully they’ll all be compatible with one another, although LiMo is commonly known as an Android competitor and questions have arisen as to whether or not the two platforms will play nicely together.

Full press release after the jump.

Read More

Linux, as most people think of it, is an alternative desktop OS for nerds. And those people are right: the vast majority of machines running Linux are the personal computers of hobbyists and enthusiasts. That being said, you might be using Linux now and not even know it.

Stripped-down versions of Linux are well suited for modern cellphones. The OS already has all most of the needed code for connectivity of every kind built into it, and there are enough other open-source apps that can be adopted that it cuts production time — and costs — considerably.

Because of this many smartphone makers and application makers and carriers are turning their attention to Linux for handsets. And you might want to consider it too.

Read More