Thursday, 9 November 2006

OpenMoko Launches Open Source Mobile Phone Platform

Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC) hopes to launch the first phone based on its OpenMoko platform. "The phone is potentially going to be the next PC, so it needs to be open," Sean Moss-Pultz, an FIC product manager said. Based on the Linux 2.6.17 kernel, OpenMoko software will be made freely available for developers. Moss-Pultz explained the Motorola-baiting name thus, "The C has been changed to a K as a tribute to all the hackers who drive this open source world."

FIC will only profit from the enterprise if it manages to flog its own handsets based on the platform. The first models, which are set to be priced from around USD 350, will use a 2.5G GSM chipset from Texas Instruments and run on a Samsung 2410 226MHz processor.



Figure 1: Linux Phone Home: FIC's Sample OpenMoko Handset

The cheapest models will sport 128MB of SDRAM and flash memory, while a version with 1GB of flash memory is also planned. Support for GPS will also be built in, "when your mobile phone knows where it is, it can do things that artificial intelligence can only dream of," Moss-Pultz said.

FIC plans to offer a 'certified feed' of applications it has already tested, and anticipates two types, 'finger applications' which work via a simple touchscreen interface, and 'stylus applications' for more complicated tasks.

Moss-Pultz denied that the plan was designed to counter its major Taiwanese rival HTC, which is firmly in the Windows Mobile camp. "HTC makes great hardware, [but] they've chosen to go the Microsoft route. We think the smart phone market is plenty big enough for Symbian, plenty big enough for Windows Mobile, and plenty big enough for OpenMoko."