Openmoko announces distributors for Freerunner

Open source mobile phone developer, Openmoko, has revealed the first five distributors that will be selling the consumer version of the Linux-based touchscreen Openmoko device, the Neo Freerunner.

On Wednesday, Openmoko said it has begun shipping the Freerunner to Pulster, Golden Delicious Computers and TRIsoft located in Germany, Bearstech in France and IDA Systems based in India.

The consumer gadget has a suggested retail price of $399 and will also be available from Openmoko’s web site. The company said it will announce availability in other regions of the world at LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco on August 5.

Openmoko, a subsidiary of Taiwanese manufacturer First International Computer, unveiled its mass market gadget earlier this year. Based on the Neo 1973, which proved so popular with the open source development community it sold out, the Freerunner rolls all the latest features into a consumer friendly package.

The device uses a similar form factor to the Neo, with a 2.8″ VGA touch screen, A-GPS, 128MB of memory, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth and USB, as well as wifi and motion sensors and a faster 500MHz processor. The device will come in two versions: a 850MHz tri-band and a 900Mhz tri-band and will ship with a basic developer platform. Subsequent software can be downloaded from the Openmoko developer site.

“We have moved beyond the early adopter stage and are now ready to release the next generation Neo Freerunner to markets where we are seeing early traction,” said Steve Mosher, Openmoko vice president of marketing. “These key distributors have relationships that reach deeply into markets that can leverage the features of this remarkable mobile device and advance it even further through software and exterior customization.”

Last week, Mosher revealed that the Freerunner should be available to buy within the first week of July, just beating Apple’s 3G iPhone to the commercial punch.