LiMo wheels out new handsets

Mobile Linux collective, the LiMo Foundation, announced a raft of new handsets to ship with the operating system on Monday.

Seven new devices from Motorola, NEC and Panasonic bring the total number of LiMo devices available to 21 and introduce features such as HSDPA roaming capabilities, GPS, mobile TV and advanced video streaming.

A not for profit organisation, LiMo aims to blend the community-based development benefits of Linux with development practices from the mobile community in a bid to minimise fragmentation. Release 1 of the platform came out in April.

“LiMo was founded on the notion that fragmentation of the mobile industry among dozens of proprietary, closed operating systems was inhibiting innovation,” said Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo, chair of the LiMo Foundation.

The organisation also announced 11 new members: Cellon, Esmertec, Freescale Semiconductor, Longcheer Holdings, MIZI Research, Movial Corporation, PacketVideo Corporation, SK Innoace, Telecom Italia, VirtualLogix and ZTE, taking LiMo’s membership to more than 50.