Verizon Sides with Lilo, Snubs Android - Problem?

[Clinker]

On Wednesday of this week Verzon announced that they would be picking the LiMo Foundation as their “preferred” operating system.

LiMo’s original backers included Motorola, NEC, Vodafone, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and NTT DoCoMo and was launched in January 2007.

"Verizon Wireless fully expects to support a wide variety of Operating Systems as we move into the [faster network] world; our full support for Linux does not mean we won't support, for example, Android and the work of the Open Handset Alliance," Schamberger said. "In fact, we expect many of our customers will want Android-based products. ... Android has great promise, and Verizon expects to provide great services to consumers using Android."

Kyle Malady, vice president of networks at Verizon Wireless said during a conference call with reporters this morning. “LiMo is our platform of choice, but if there comes a point where we see there is benefit for our customers we will use Open Handset Alliance as well”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/techno...7860189.column

[Daniel]

This is gonna be a real interesting battle to keep a eye on. I also found this pretty neat graphic and summary of the basic differences between the two open source linux platforms.

Should be a good primer for anyone new to the LiMo platform:



http://mobilecrunch.com/2008/05/14/a...he-difference/

[Andor]

This article over on laptopmag.com summizes the situation pretty well:

• LiMo will become the preferred OS for Verizon Wireless’ handsets, starting with lower end feature phones and scaling up to smart phones later.

• The first LiMo-based devices will take “many months” to develop, and they will debut in 2009.

• Verizon Wireless will be dedicating resources to this initiative above and beyond what the carrier already does for OSes like Brew, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry, and during the call it was explained that this would require that Verizon hire more talent that has an expertise in open-source software (which is a good sign).

• Android isn’t off the table by any stretch, but it seems that at least for the immediate future LiMo will be the platform of choice for devices Verizon Wireless itself rolls out, while Android will be more of a back door offering through the carrier’s separate Any Apps, Any Device initiative. Although that could change if there’s enough demand.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/verizon-sa...roid#more-1534