Texas Instruments backs mobile Linux
Texas Instruments (TI) has joined the ranks of major players to throw its weight behind mobile Linux.
Along with Telecom Italia and Chinese telecoms equipment giant ZTE, TI joined the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum on Monday.
The LiPS Forum, which aims to create standards for open source phones, was launched in November 2005. Its founder members include ARM, France Telecom, MontaVista Software and PalmSource.
"TI believes that the LiPS Forum is an important venue for aligning mobile requirements with the Linux community and we are honoured to become a recent member," the firm's cellular software chief technology officer, Eric Thomas, said on Monday.
Other groups devoted to similar purposes include the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, the Mobile Linux Initiative and a still-unnamed alliance between manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung, and operators such as Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo, which was launched in June.
"It all highlights the challenge that's being faced in the mobile handset space, which is what the right platform is for developing flexibility for manufacturers, operators and users," explained Rob Bamforth, a principal analyst for Quocirca.
"It's really a matter of the best way of giving efficient flexibility to the manufacturers to develop a broad enough set of devices," Bamforth added.