Volantis embraces open-source approach

Volantis Systems is joining the open-source bandwagon.
The U.K.-based mobile software developer is open sourcing its server, allowing developers to download and run its content-optimizing system free under a proprietary license. The Volantis Mobility Server is available immediately as a free binary, and the company will release 1.2 million lines of source code early next year under the GNU General Public License.
Volantis’ software is designed to deliver optimized content and applications across a wide range of mobile devices. The Mobility Server includes development tools, a client-side mobile AJAX widget library and a database featuring information about more than 4,600 devices.
“We believe that for every potential Web application in the PC world, there is going to be a mobile equivalent,” said Mark Watson, co-founder and CEO of Volantis. “There’s no way that Volantis, on its own, can hope to build out all those applications. The only answer is to set the software, and the developer community, and for that matter, the mobile Internet, free.”
The move follows Google Inc.’s unveiling last week of Android, an open source mobile platform based on Linux. A host of other players are pushing open source solutions in mobile, also, in an effort to spur development of wireless applications.