No Buy-In for Access Linux: A Bad Sign for Mobile Linux?

by Sam Dean - Aug. 15, 2008Comments (9)

Are we about to see more competitors pulling out of the mobile Linux race? Recently, researchers at J. Gold and Associates produced a report predicting that Google's Linux-based Android platform would merge with the new and open source mobile platform from Symbian,  pitting two huge Goliaths (Google and Nokia) against any Davids who might dare to produce Linux-based handsets. While it's pure speculation that that might ever happen, a sign of weakening confidence on the mobile Linux front has appeared: The Access Linux Platform's initial and only smartphone project was recently rubbished. Orange is bailing on its plan to deliver a Samsung smartphone running Access Linux.

Orange actually made its decision at the end of July, but there has been nearly no analysis on it. Access Linux, of course, is considered by many to be a minor player in the growing effort to deliver Linux-based phones. On the non-proprietary side of the smartphone war, the LiMo Foundation's Linux platform, a newly open sourced Symbian, and Google's Android are the most focused on platforms.

Still, the amount of competition and fragmentation in this race has caused many observers to question whether some of the big players involved may start to scare the smaller players. In addition to some good thoughts on whether Google's Android is closer than we think, Matt Asay had this to say about the reported possibility of a Google/Symbian hookup: "Having Google's brand behind Symbian could very well mean 'game over' for mobile Linux in the mobile phone market." That's true, and even without such a hookup, a small player such as Access Linux on the mobile Linux front has to think carefully about which platform or platforms are going to succeed.

If we see any more folks resigning on this front, I predict they'll be handset makers backing the LiMo platform. There are more than 30 handsets announced for that platform at this point.

As seen in this post, the LiMo Foundation has said it will not back down from Google, and points out that Nokia is a member of the LiMo Foundation. Google has also pooh-poohed the idea of a mash-up with Symbian. Still, there is scary competition shaping up in this arena, and the LiMo Foundation needs buy-in from the handset makers.  Those handset makers could bail as unceremoniously as Orange did. 

What did Orange's PR firm have to say about the decision to resign? It cryptically attributed it to "a number of advances in mobile technology." Right, gotcha.

 

 


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9 Comments
 

J. Gold and Associates need to lay off the crack pipe. Nokia OWNS the smartphone OS market and Android hasn't shipped a single unit yet - why would Nokia, in their right minds, even consider a dumb move like this...?

0 Votes

Well, the phone manufacturers control this gig, so they can choose to go with whoever has control. Nokia is still the king-daddy in this space. Rather then letting Google in, so to speak (even though Android is completely OSS), they should consider making sure they have all the features that Android is encouraging others to provide.

1 Votes

OSS has always thrived when users were boxed in. However, I do agree - a solid and credible manufacturer or phone vendor has to throw its weight behind it. It may not be all bad if Android stays independent and Open Source...

1 Votes

Android started up well after Symbian established its dominance. A merger, at this point, really doesn't make any sense. Let's hear some real reasons here.

0 Votes

Would love to get Nokia's perspective on this scenario. I'd imagine that they'd laugh at the idea of merging Android with Symbian.

Its like Microsoft merging Windows with OS X. OS X is the better OS and (hypothetically) might be thinking of creating an OS for the PC...doesn't mean Microsoft is going to look to give up its 90+% share of the desktop OS market

1 Votes

From where i sit the fact access linux got nix'd mean nothing more than the fact that Palm is still unable to deliver. Nothing new and not any reflection on Linux.

Over this last 3 weeks i have been looking into doing palm development. Not because im a programmer or because i want to build palm apps.

I am looking into it solely because i happen to own a treo and frankly the damn thing crashes more than windows ME with 5 megs of free space. The phone even crashes with nothing loaded into it, no address's contacts number or 3rd party apps.

While like the device and there are some great palm apps out there frankly Palm from where i sit is at the Gallows. Its done, this is just one device manufacturer who has seen the same think i have.

All i want at this point is my Treo to be as useful and stable as i can get it till a real Linux phone comes out and i can AND WILL jump ship at that point.

In all fairness this isn't all Palms fault either. The phone i have is from sprint and they load it up with some apps that point back various sprint websites and i have already verified some of the sprint apps as the probable cause of a few of the crashes.

Palm was never designed to be a multitasking preemptive real time OS, Sticking Linux under the Garnet/Palm OS is a novel idea but basically its almost like running a hypervisor or virtualization system that if all bugs are worked out would in theory at least solve a great many of the woes of most Treo and palm users in terms of stability but it is also just extending the inevitable. Palm is Dead. Again though, absolutely no reflection on Linux,

I laugh when i read reports of "Linux deployment on phones numbers are down." Yeah, down all right, when nobody really has one out yet in the US open market. Kind of talking about how many chickens are out there when there is nothing but eggs yet. Just wish something would hatch soon cause this phone is driving me Nutz!! its crashing virtually every day, some days only once or twice other days up to 20 times. Glad Orange saw the writing on the wall, it would have been much worse for Linux if that did release cause the woes of Palm/Access might have been blamed on Linux instead.

0 Votes

I agree with tek. Linux is stronger than a single player being ditched by an operator. In the past several months I've seen a bunch of ODMs in Asia who worked on Windows Mobile smartphones starting to look for Linux alternatives.

0 Votes

What about OpenMoko? It is happening NOW. It is here, the software, and the hardware. And it is working. In fact, if they decide, if YOU, the user decide, you could make your own linux phone, and everything will be yours, both the software and the hardware.

0 Votes

What about OpenMoko? It is happening NOW. It is here, the software, and the hardware. And it is working. In fact, if they decide, if YOU, the user decide, you could make your own linux phone, and everything will be yours, both the software and the hardware.

0 Votes
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