Mobile Linux developer Trolltech said Tuesday that its Qtopia application platform and user interface has been ported to the Neo1973 device from community driven open platform effort OpenMoko.

The move gives mobile Linux developers an additional reference platform for mobile Qtopia applications besides the Trolltech Greenphone.

The brainchild of open Linux proponent Sean Moss-Pultz and backed by Taiwanese motherboard and electronics firm FIC, OpenMoko promises to bring the open source Linux efforts of the desktop to the mobile handset.

Currently available to developers, the Neo1973 boasts a 2.8″ VGA touch screen, A-GPS, 128MB of memory, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth and USB. Wifi is on the future roadmap.

The device operates on the GSM850/900/1800/1900 bands and features plenty of geek tools like an application manager, the OpenMoko Software Development Kit and Funambol push email and PIM synchronization support. The device aims to support the much sought after write once, run anywhere functionality on the mobile device. Presumably, unless the API’s change between model shipments, the same applications can be deployed across any device.

A consumer version is expected within the next several weeks.

Trolltech is also making the Qtopia Phone Edition available under the open source GPL licence. Until now, some Qtopia components, like the telephony, DRM and the safe execution environment software stacks, were only available under the commercial development licence.