Linux: the new OS celebrity
14 Sep 2006
arcchart.com
The mobile industry is a lot like Hollywood. Celebrities hop in and out of the fame limelight at startling speeds; just like various technologies in wireless. Right now, WiMAX is the darling of mobile infrastructure, and who in short-range wireless doesn’t get giddy at the [mere] mention of ultra-wide band? At last week’s Mobile Application Platforms and OS (MAPOS) conference in London, hosted by Informa Telecoms & Media, there was no doubt who the current darling of handset software is: Linux.
Linux has always been on the mobile operating system radar, but a spate of announcements and industry developments over the past few months has ignited a huge resurgence of interest. This rise of Linux is one of the topics covered in a whitepaper released this week by ARCchart titled “Mobile Operating Systems: The New Generation”.
arcchart.com
Historically, Linux as a mobile operating system has been something of a misnomer, since a productised end-to-end Linux OS (in a similar vain to Window Mobile and Symbian OS) has not existed. While companies like MontaVista specialise in embedded Linux kernels, the reality is that the kernel constitutes a tiny part of a complete OS distribution required by a mobile phone; a large number of closed source components and proprietary patches have to be added. This is one reason why pointing to the existence of a large Linux developer community is redundant in the context of handset applications, since there is no standardized Linux application environment for these developers to code for.
However, this situation is changing and the renewed momentum behind Linux has partly been fuelled by announcements from several vendors of complete technology productisation and support services for Linux handsets. These are essentially mobile Linux distributions that integrate an entire software stack for phones and provide essential services such as software customisation, interoperability testing and certification. A la Mobile, Purple Labs, Aplix’s BTO offering and Access Linux Platform, all announced in 1H06, are the first commercial vendors of these productized Linux offerings.
Perhaps the most significant development has been Motorola’s revelation of its love affair with Linux: a relationship which Greg Besio, Corporate VP at Motorola, reiterated at MAPOS. While Motorola has always been fairly vocal of its interest in Linux, it has recently turned positively evangelical; although this evangelism must be taken with a pinch of salt since the company has an impressive track record of finding spiritual enlightenment with operating systems. In 1998, Motorola saw the light with Symbian (taking a 23% stake in the newly formed company) and again with Window Mobile in 2003. Combined with its internal JUIX platform and its commitment to AJAR following its acquisition of TTPCom, Motorola seems prepared to climb into bed with just about anything with OS stamped on it.
Admittedly, Motorola’s flirtations with Linux seem more genuine. According to Besio, Linux will power more than half of Motorola’s phones within the next two years, as part of the company’s long-term plan to consolidate handset software development into fewer platforms. The manufacturer has already shipped 5 million Linux-based phones as of early 2006, with most running Trolltech’s Qtopia UI framework.
In another development at MAPOS, Andy Bush, Director of Business Development at SavaJe, revealed that the company is considering porting its Java OS to a Linux core. Under this paradigm, the Java OS essentially becomes an abstracted middleware and application execution environment, making it strikingly similar to JUIX (as a Java platform running on a Linux core) and products from companies like Sky MobileMedia and OpenPlug.
Linux is open source and advocates are keen to highlight the benefit that this has, combined with Linux’ massive developer base, on producing highly optimised and stable code. However, while open source sits at the heart of the industry’s attraction to Linux, it has been unclear how open source translates into an economic advantage for OEMs looking to build Linux-based devices. The fact that Linux code is ‘free’ is of peripheral importance. Two key reasons that we see, result from developments which are driving value in the OS space further up the software stack, and the time-to-market challenges which OEMs are facing with current OS products.
Handset operating software encompasses the core OS, middleware, application execution environment (AEE) and the UI framework. While the low-level OS supports the core functionality of the phone, allowing the higher layers to interact with the underlying hardware (e.g. telephony stack, memory, camera etc.), it provides OEMs with little opportunities for handset differentiation and therefore has limited perceived value. Instead, it is software like the UI framework and AEE which allow operators and OEMs to differentiate their products in the eyes of consumers, and these products are better positioned to generate value.
At the same time, handset development times must be greatly reduced if OEMs and operators are to effectively respond to the incredible speed at which the mobile phone industry is evolving. However, OEMs continue to face massive time-to-market challenges when bringing new handset models to market, and much of this effort is based on integrating the OS with the phone hardware. This is a challenge that OEMs have traditionally faced with both Symbian and Windows mobile, leading to handset development times in excess of two years in some cases.
By comparison, many hardware reference platforms are ‘brought-up’ in Linux, meaning that they are pre-tested on Linux and there has already been some integration of device drivers and the telephony stack. This can significantly speed the overall development of a phone, particularly when used in conjunction with middleware and AEE components that have been sufficiently abstract so that they too can be quickly ported to the Linux core.
Perhaps the most significant development that has generated the most industry buzz has been the commercial foundation announced in June between Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic, Motorola and Samsung. Named the ‘Open Platform Initiative’, the foundation plans to define and develop a mobile Linux reference distribution, comprising of both open source and closed source (proprietary) components. The foundation intends to publish APIs, architecture and test suites aimed at helping adopters assess and demonstrate product conformance to the platform specification.
What is most interesting is that the OPI is led by two major mobile operators. In Vodafone’s case, we believe the company’s goal is adopt a mature, complete and supported Linux-based platform for its mobile phones, based on its a long-term strategy of reducing the number of handset software platforms. If other major operators follow suit and Linux becomes one the platforms which they chose to consolidate the phone portfolios around, then Linux’ future position as a leading OS celebrity will be assured. |
