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Linux the fastest-growing smartphone OS

Posted by Sander_Marechal on · 7 comments
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Linux will power about 31 percent of all smartphones sold in 2012, and by then will have shipped in 331 million devices, says ABI. The research firm forecasts 75 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) for Linux in smartphones through 2012, making it the fastest-growing OS in the sector. Linux is benefiting from growing support in the handset OEM community, most notably Motorola, but also Nokia with less traditional types of devices aimed at mobile broadband applications.

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Comments (7)

henke54 ·
Quoting:Rumors are circulating on the new Google Phone thanks to Mark Hopkins, who claims to know the inside scroop from sources at Google.

According to his sources, the Google phone will be powered by a modified version of Linux kernal and will have GPS functionality built-in. The navigation will be used with Google Maps application.
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=3045
Abe ·
One can almost say with certainty that it will not be Windows (no brainner). So what else would be if it is not Linux based?

number6x ·
Symbian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS

A proprietary mobile phone OS developed by Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Siemens AG, Panasonic, and Samsung.

It currently runs on about 2/3rds of the 'smartphones' sold.
gus3 ·
What about the source code?

Hold their feet to the fire early, or it will be a tough battle to get GPL compliance.
Abe ·
Quoting:Symbian A proprietary mobile phone OS developed by Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Siemens AG, Panasonic, and Samsung.
Possible but highly improbable.

To my knowledge, Google had no participation in Symbian and consequently no access to its internals. Google wants an OS that they can modify and tailor to their own business needs. They want control so they are not dependent on or like any one else. They can license it but that would be limiting to their freedom of advancement. I am not sure they can have that in Symbian.

Google is heavily Linux dependent and a supporter outfit with good resources. They also like the developer support Linux has. Then again, they might go with Symbian only if they don't want to hassle with the development process and want something quick. I doubt that is what they want.



number6x ·
Abe,

I agree. However Symbian is about the only other game in town. I don't think RIM is going to license their OS, and I agree that Google is not interested in Microsoft.

Synbian is willing to license, and would probably allow tweaking the OS just as AT&T allowed others to re-write Unix.

You asked for possibilities other than Linux, and I gave one.
techiem2 ·
They could be running OpenMoko...

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