MontaVista Software Inc. today released a version of its Linux platform built specifically for mobile phones. The new offering is also designed for the mid-range handset market-devices that comprise the bulk of the handset industry-an area platform vendors like PalmSource Inc. and Symbian are also targeting.
“That’s really where the growth is going to take place,” explained Paxton Cooper, MontaVista’s director of product marketing.
MontaVista is betting heavily that handset makers will take a shine to the flexible, open-source nature of Linux. Unlike licensees of Palm, Symbian and Microsoft Corp. platforms, Linux OS users can fully modify and manipulate the software to their tastes. The potential for Linux phones is so great that MontaVista also announced its Mobilinux operating system for mobile phones. The company had previously offered its Linux-based Consumer Electronics Edition platform to handset customers Motorola Inc., NEC Corp. and Panasonic. The platform was designed for a variety of devices including mobile phones, set-top boxes and routers.
“We’re trying to focus more specifically on that market-the handsets,” Cooper said.
Further, MontaVista is hoping to expand beyond the high-end smart-phone market-which generally comprises small numbers of expensive devices-and into the so-called feature-phone business. Feature phones are mid-range devices that include features like cameras and MP3 players and account for the majority of the handset industry. Already Symbian has announced its intent to target feature phones, and PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft Ltd. to sell into the mid-range phone market. MontaVista’s Cooper argued that feature phones are becoming more complicated and therefore need a flexible operating system like Linux. Most feature phones today run on platforms built by the handset makers themselves.
MontaVista said its new Mobilinux operating system supports single-chip phones, which are typically less expensive than dual-chip phones. Most smart phones feature two chips, one for communications and one for applications. MontaVista said its new platform also features rapid boot times, improved stability and power-management enhancements. The product release comes a few months after MontaVista announced a partnership program to bring together chip, software and technology vendors to support Linux-based mobile phones.
Interestingly, MontaVista is also implementing a new business model in response to the growing potential of the mobile-phone market. Because Linux is an open source platform-and therefore free-MontaVista generally makes money through the sales of associated Linux development tools and services. However, Cooper said the handset industry is built around per-unit licensing fees, which is the approach MontaVista will take with its new Mobilinux platform. Cooper declined to provide per-unit prices for the platform. Symbian and other operating system vendors generally charge a few dollars per unit for their platforms.
“We are engaging with new customers around this new product,” Cooper said.
MontaVista is not the only company betting on Linux for mobile phones. Oslo, Norway-based Trolltech sells its Qtopia Linux platform to mobile-phone and personal-digital-assistant makers. The company counts 20 handset vendors and software companies, such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Infineon and Philips, using its products for mobile phones. Interestingly, Motorola uses Linux software from both MontaVista and Trolltech for its Linux phones. So far, Motorola has released a handful of Linux-based phones, including the A768, E680, E680i, A780 and A760.
Although Linux is a popular topic of conversation in the wireless industry, it still accounts for a fraction of the mobile-phone operating-system market. According to research and consulting firm Canalys, Symbian, Microsoft and PalmSource accounted for roughly 87 percent of the market in the third quarter of last year, with Symbian coming in at No. 1 with 50 percent.
