LiMo Heats up Competition for Open Mobile Handsets

The purpose behind an open platform, or at least the spirit behind it, is to eliminate the confusion and fragmentation that results from having multiple competing proprietary systems. Instead, we're seeing confusion and fragmentation resulting from multiple competing open systems. I guess the industry's just naturally competitive.

In particular, there's a lot of competition for open source mobile platforms. The Limo Foundation just announced several new partners and devices, giving it a firm advantage in the competition against Google Android and Nokia's Symbian. Each camp has several heavyweights in their respective corners, but the smart ones are hedging their bets and joining up with more than one. Motorola for example, is a member of all three.

Regardless of which one emerges as dominant, I think the real innovation is going to come when the mobile industry is once and for all broken of the annoying habit of tying individual devices to specific carrier plans.

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