LiMo Foundation made it quite clear today that it will be quite busy at the Mobile World Congress beginning in Barcelona February 16. The foundation, which is a consortium of mobile industry players creating an open, hardware-independed, Linux-based mobile operating system, has announced NTT DOCOMO, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone are all dedicated to releasing Limo-based handsets this year. The new handsets, some of which will be displayed at MWC, will be based on the newly released RC2 LiMo Platform.
RC2 includes new features to the LiMo Platform that include advanced multimedia support, location-based services, device management, and enhanced security. A number of foundation members have created LiMo Reference Implementations including code from both the RC1 and RC2 platforms, assisting manufacturers in easily deploying LiMo devices but still allowing for customization.
LiMo has endorsed the OMTP BONDI specification which will allow application developers to code an application one time and have it run on any LiMo handset. One of the current problems in the mobile industry is fragmentation (the reason for the LiMo Foundation), and with that comes a lot of work for mobile developers. One application won’t necessarily work with another mobile operating system or runtime environment without being re-coded. A common specification would make mobile development easier, spurring the mobile industry to grow at a faster pace.
