Verizon chooses Linux over Google

Android loses out to LiMo Foundation

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 16 May 2008

Verizon Wireless has announced that it will concentrate future operating system design on the LiMo Foundation rather than Google's Android platform.

The US telco has been given a seat on the board of the LiMo Foundation, and will become a core member of the consortium which includes Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung and Vodafone.

The LiMo Foundation will develop a Linux-based mobile phone platform that is pledged to be totally open.

"Verizon Wireless is demonstrating itself as a champion of openness in mobile innovation by joining the board of the LiMo Foundation," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the Foundation.

"Major wireless service providers from across North America, Asia and Europe are now engaged in committed collaboration through LiMo.

"This offers further concrete evidence that LiMo is positioned at the heart of the rapidly emerging, industry-wide trend to secure the benefits of openness and choice in technology."

The news will come as a blow to Google, whose Android platform has failed to get many supporters despite initial interest.

Analysts claim that Android now faces being squeezed out of a mobile market dominated by Symbian and Microsoft. Linux, however, is gaining supporters fast.

"The addition of Verizon Wireless to the LiMo roster is another critical milestone in our foundation's rapid growth and market impact," said Kiyohito Nagata, a vice president at NTT DoCoMo, and chairman of the LiMo Foundation.

"In technical output, governance constructs and business models, LiMo lives out its belief that openness is the key to unlocking innovation to the benefit of the whole industry and mobile consumers everywhere."