limofoundation.org

LiMo’s Unique Combination of Openness and IP Protection Resonates Throughout the Expanding Mobile Ecosystem

LONDON, England, TOKYO, Japan, August 4, limofoundation.org™, the global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open handset platform for the whole mobile industry, announced today 11 new member companies. The addition of Cellon, Esmertec, Freescale Semiconductor, Longcheer Holdings, MIZI Research, Movial Corporation, PacketVideo Corporation (PV), SK Innoace, Telecom Italia, VirtualLogix™ Inc. and ZTE Corporation advances LiMo’s membership to more than 50 leaders from across the value system and provides further evidence that LiMo’s contributor-led governance model can uniquely rationalize the increasing complexity and sophistication of the mobile ecosystem.

“LiMo’s consensual governance model and balanced collaborative development methodology have set it apart from other platform initiatives and continue to garner wide industry support,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of limofoundation.org. “These 11 new members will join the development of a consistent and competitive global handset OS (operating system), within which the collaborative benefits of shared cost and innovation are realized and upon which diverse, commercially driven differentiation freely thrives.”

The new membership intake further extends LiMo’s reach in multiple dimensions: regionally, technologically and within the industry value system. Some of the new LiMo members previously participated in the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum, which announced in June that it would fold activities into LiMo in order to accelerate the emergence of common mobile Linux specifications and implementations and to bolster the emerging mobile Linux developer community creating new mobile applications, services and end-user experiences.

“LiMo greatly appreciates the commitment to openness and collaboration taken by all of our new members. Today’s announcement includes several former LiPS Forum participants that have chosen to redirect their resources into LiMo in order to drive unification of the mobile ecosystem,” said Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DOCOMO, chairperson of limofoundation.org. “LiMo’s broad industry engagement demonstrates the fact that LiMo offers an open, transparent and equitable opportunity for established industry players and newcomers alike to shape and drive innovation within the LiMo Platform.”

Six mobile industry leaders launched limofoundation.org in January in order to deliver an open and globally consistent, Mobile Linux-based software platform for use by the entire mobile industry. Due largely to an industry-leading approach to open consensual governance, sophisticated IP stewardship and the effective management of platform fragmentation, LiMo has rapidly gained momentum across the mobile communications marketplace. Vendors and service providers have successfully joined LiMo in a spirit of collaboration without sacrificing their own business opportunities to provide compelling and differentiated services to their customers. So far, 21 mobile handset models have been brought to market utilizing LiMo Platform technology.

About limofoundation.org
limofoundation.org is a dedicated consortium of mobile industry leaders working together within an open and transparent governance model—with shared leadership and shared decision making—to deliver an open and globally consistent handset software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use by the whole mobile industry. A full description of LiMo, including its vision, goals, charter, guiding principles, bylaws and membership information, can be found at limofoundation.