Separate mobile Linux efforts have been cited by competitors as likely to lead to fragmentation.
That’s an ongoing debate, to be sure. But one Linux camp and an analyst said last week that “fragmentation” definitely means fragmenting the pool of application developers available to any one Linux camp. Thus, one way to read ongoing announcements of progress by various Linux groups is to view them as positioning themselves to pique application developers’ interests.
The Linux Phone Standard (LiPS) Forum said last week that it was releasing 1.0 specifications with a telephony emphasis, in contrast to a data-based angle pursued by Google Inc.’s recent Open Handset Alliance. The LiPS Forum said that “the challenge lies in moving from ‘paper standards’ to creating code and actual devices,” a point echoed by at least one analyst familiar with Linux issues.
“To that end, LiPS Forum members are already building software and equipment that follow the LiPS specifications,” the forum said in a statement.
LiPS’ general manager, Bill Weinberg, told InfoWorld in an interview last week that his group differs from the Google-led OHA in that LiPS is pursuing a standard that allows a variety of interoperable implementations. The OHA, Weinberg said, is pursuing simply one implementation of a Linuxbased OS.
Competition heating up
But Weinberg acknowledged that the race is on among Linux camps to attract developers and achieve a level of recognition before an effort such as the OHA becomes a de-facto standard.
“The real thing everyone is fighting for is a big crowd of developers for applications,” said Carl Howe, analyst at Blackfriars Communications. “The mobile-phone vendors have said, and rightfully so, that we’re just not that good at software. The question is: ‘Can I get a whole bunch of developers to write really cool applications on the software that I use?’ That’s what (different Linux organizations) are fighting for.”
It’s precisely because the LiPS Forum is seeking to establish industrywide specifications, rather than a specific implementation, that it will not move ahead as swiftly as the “Android” effort spearheaded by Google and the OHA, Howe said.
“The argument is, (LiPS is) offering a spec, not code,” the analyst said. “As they say, they expect multiple, different implementations. That’s always worrisome because there’s no guarantee those implementations will be compatible. That encourages fragmentation.”
Android, in contrast, is more focused on getting developers involved immediately to develop code, Howe said. LiPS is addressing telephony functions, however, and Android is directed at data services, so the two groups have a slightly different focus, he added.
“These are two different approaches to the problem,” Howe said. “I’m more skeptical towards this one because it’s a bit looseygoosey. Specifications don’t create products. Translating specs into code is an imperfect science.”
Bottom-line battle
So, what is the status of the various efforts to develop an opensource, Linux-based OS to compete with Symbian, Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile and other OSs on the market?
“I’m not sure it matters,” Howe said. “Everyone is teeing this up as a ‘war of operating systems.’ I’m not sure it is. It’s a war of user experiences, sure. Users care about what the handset does. The OS is a nice piece of the handset puzzle, but it may not be the most important piece. Yes, it can be a platform for innovation. But, much more importantly than in computers, software is but a part of the handset and it should be viewed as such.”
The attraction of Linux remains its lack of licensing costs, Howe said. The OS accounts for perhaps $2 to $7 of a handset’s bill of materials (BoM) and, when that BoM is $50 to $100, saving on Linux begins to look attractive. Linux also requires a level of sweat equity to differentiate and customize, which carries soft costs.
The LiPS Forum, founded in November 2005, counts operators, handset and chip vendors and software purveyors among its members, including British Telecommunications, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Huawei Technology Co. Ltd., ZTE Corp., Texas Instruments Inc., Freescale Semiconductors Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Arm Ltd. and ACCESS Co. Ltd., among many others. It joins Google’s OHA, the LiMO Foundation and other Linux-oriented groups founded over the past several years.
