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February 13, 2009

Yesterday, the Symbian Foundation said it is preparing itself to face the Open Handset Alliance on Feb. 18 and also announced a whole slew of new members to battle what it calls the Android threat.

Meanwhile, the LiMo Foundation and Access Linux are hanging around to see what they can muster on their end.

Considering that the war on operating systems is all about mobile applications, Symbian has announced a list of new corporate members including MySpace, Bank of America and Omron Software.

However, most of these new members have something to gain for their $1,500 membership fee and, overall, there's a large degree of infidelity with companies betting either side.

For example, Qualcomm happens to be both camps at the same time, and that has some observers cringe.

They don't care if mobile Internet devices run Symbian or Android or anything else as long as it's not desktop Windows, so they can sell their ARM-based SnapDragon CPU into mobile devices including laptots.

For its part, Omron Software backs both sides as well on the basis that membership isn't expensive (or exclusive) and provides a path to some kind of influence.

While the big industry players iron it out at Mobile World Congress on Feb. 18, the LiMo Foundation and Access Linux will be claiming that one Linux-based mobile platform isn't enough.

LiMo still lacks smartphones in the popular sense - developers can't sell LiMo applications to the public - while Access Linux is demonstrable on a variety of devices from set-top boxes to embedded routers.

However, the company's presence in the Chinese market makes it impossible to discount just yet.

Also, SIM manufacturer Gemalto is desperate to see SIM doing more than just storing the GSM keys.

This is evidenced by this canned quote from Senior Vice President Michel Camitrot that using the usual buzz words in an effort to show how the company will display its influence: "new generation of SIM cards, handset customization, personal settings, contactless technology, etc, etc."

Source: The Symbian Foundation.

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