There are plenty of contentious questions in the operating system business. Will Microsoft Corp. dominate the mobile-phone field as it has done in the desktop computer business? Will Symbian manage to escape Nokia Corp.’s shadow and entice broad support? Will PalmSource Inc. translate its personal digital assistant success into the wireless handset world? And who will ultimately decide such questions-mobile-phone makers or wireless carriers?
But perhaps the cloudiest question is: What about Linux?
“It could be very big,” said Rajeev Chand, senior equity research analyst for wireless with Rutberg & Co. “It’s just unknown right now.”
The amount of support behind Linux is unclear. The legal aspects surrounding the platform are undecided. The strategic pros and cons have yet to be hashed out. However, there is undoubtedly excitement for Linux as an operating system in mobile phones, and there is undoubtedly potential.
“An area that we’ve seen a lot of interest in over the past year is in consumer electronics, specifically mobile phones,” said Scott Hedrick, senior product manager for MontaVista Software’s consumer electronics division. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based MontaVista sells Linux technology for mobile phones, set-top boxes, telematics services and telecommunications infrastructure and is perhaps the biggest name in the blooming wireless Linux market.
To date, Motorola Inc. and NEC Corp. have announced partnerships with MontaVista to build Linux-based mobile phones. Indeed, Motorola early this year announced major plans to install Linux in a majority of its phones, although so far the company has announced only one Linux device, the A760 for Europe and Asia. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. too signed an alliance with MontaVista, but so far hasn’t announced any phone plans. And phone maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. has also voiced broad support for Linux.
Further, Hedrick said, there are additional unannounced handset makers, many of which are “big names,” that are prepping Linux devices.
As mobile-phone makers evaluate Linux, government and industry attitudes likely are playing a role. The government of Japan has offered multimillion-dollar grants to promote Linux, and Chinese officials also have expressed support for the platform. Indeed, there are reports of an Asian consortium growing around Linux for consumer electronics and computers, a group formed with the intention of counteracting Microsoft’s Windows dominance. Microsoft has responded by sharing its Windows source code with various government and academic institutions. On the carrier side, NTT DoCoMo Inc. recently urged its handset providers to use either Linux or Symbian.
Further support for Linux comes from phone technology providers including PacketVideo Corp., Openwave Systems Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and others, which have announced products for the Linux platform. Such moves typically indicate the intentions of mobile-phone makers.
Linux now is a viable platform, said Brian Dally, director of product marketing for Openwave’s Device Software Product Group.
Linus Torvalds created Linux at the University of Helsinki in Finland more than a dozen years ago. It’s an operating system similar to Unix and is used in a variety of high-tech computer networks and databases, including wireless networks. Indeed, Nokia offers Linux network infrastructure through a deal with MontaVista. Most recently, consumer electronics companies have begun using Linux across a variety of products, from personal digital assistants to set-top boxes, to more effectively recycle their software investments. The CE Linux Forum was recently formed to promote the platform, and Nokia is a member.
Linux proponents point to a variety of benefits, but likely the most important is that Linux is an open source operating system, meaning no one company owns the Linux code. MontaVista doesn’t make any money from selling its Linux technology, but instead gleans profits from the sale of its engineering and development skills. Further, MontaVista doesn’t charge a per-unit fee; other mobile-phone operating system vendors charge between $5 and $15 per phone. That Linux is an open source operating system is key because those that use the platform can manipulate it at will. Linux users are beholden to no one.
Hedrick said Linux for mobile phones also features dynamic power management functions for improved battery use, advanced networking and roaming features and an active development community.
Not all is serene in Linux, however. Software company SCO Group Inc. claims it owns the rights to the operating system and has filed lawsuits against major Linux supporters IBM Corp. and Red Hat Inc. Nokia’s Chief Technology Officer Pertti Korhonen said the company will not use Linux in its phones due to the legal issues. Also, Linux critics complain of the fractured nature of the code, which is open for modification. An international committee of Linux developers oversees and manages the code and its modifications.
Despite its potential drawbacks, some see significant possibilities for Linux in wireless. Rutberg & Co.’s Chand said Linux is a way for carriers and handset manufacturers to differentiate their products. He said carriers specifically may favor Linux as a way to stay above the battle over mobile-phone operating systems. And if carriers manage to gain more power over their handset suppliers, as is the trend today, they may well turn to Linux as their preferred platform.
For the present however, Chand said many of the wireless industry’s smaller players likely will gravitate toward Linux as a way to differentiate their products and potentially gain carrier favor. But whether Linux will evolve into real competition for Symbian, Microsoft and the like is still unclear.
