Samsung will provide Linux-powered mobile phones to Vodaphone, the world's largest wireless carrier, based in London. The phone is the industry's first commercial handset using release 2 of the LiMo operating system. LiMo, backed by a large group of global handset vendors, is a platform based on the open source Linux, which can be used on mobile phones for free. The Korea Times has an interesting article on this development.
By now, everyone should realize that the future of the mobile communication industry is going to revolve around
- a growing array of handsets that are essentially like small internet-enabled PCs. These will become like a commodity, with increasing power and lower prices,
- the real excitement and money in mobile will be in the content (software and applications) that mobile devices allow customers to use.
Given these realities, I only have one question about the new LiMo based phone by Samsung. When will it, along with Samsung and LG's android phones, hit the Korean market? For the overall health and growth of the market, the sooner the better.