A group of companies including PalmSource and France Télécom plan to launch an initiative in mid-November to standardize the
applications layer of Linux-based mobile devices, representatives involved in the project said. The group will be called the
Linux Phone Standardization Forum (LiPS).
Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) was invited to attend the initial LiPS informational sessions which have been held in
Paris and Beijing, said Claude Beullens, OSDL director for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
LiPS will aim to complement efforts of the Mobile Linux Initiative, a working group launched by OSDL in October in a bid to
unify and improve on efforts that are underway to use Linux as an operating system in smartphones and other handheld devices.
The Mobile Linux Initiative, which includes companies such as Motorola, PalmSource, and Trolltech, is focusing on "everything
that is kernel-related," Beullens said. Technologies to be addressed include those that ensure that Linux phones manage power
and memory efficiently.
"LiPS is more oriented toward the higher layer of the stack," Beullens said. "They're more attacking the applications layer.
So in fact we feel that the work is very complementary."
Beullens credits France Télécom with originating the idea for LiPS. A spokesman for PalmSource handling queries about LiPS
said many details about the project and its mission have yet to be worked out, and he declined to offer additional information
prior to the launch.
Using Linux-based mobile phones is most popular in China, where Motorola has sold over three million Linux handsets. Linux
proponents say the open-source OS can help phone makers reduce costs and better support phones that today carry an increasing
array of functions.
(Martyn Williams in Tokyo contributed to this report.)
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