|
Dear Industry Colleagues: Further to the public announcement of 15 February, I am very pleased to write this open letter to the initiators of the Wholesale Applications Community on behalf of the Board of limofoundation.org offering a) our full support, b) our committed participation, and c) our immediate practical assistance in a spirit of whole-industry cooperation. It is clear to us that the highly complementary areas of focus, shared belief in true openness and common industry vision create an exceptional opportunity for deep and long-term collaboration between limofoundation.org and the Wholesale Applications Community to release unfettered innovation across the industry and fully ignite the mobile internet in a way that is compelling and life-enhancing to consumers everywhere.
limofoundation.org was launched in as a constitutionally open, transparent and non-discriminatory industry consortium with the sole purpose of collaboratively delivering a competitive Linux-based device software platform to the industry upon which commercial innovation can freely thrive without brand or business model conflict with the underlying platform. Since LiMo’s launch, three major releases of the LiMo Platform have been delivered within a planned roadmap, 52 LiMo devices have been brought to market including the Vodafone 360 H1 and Vodafone 360 M1 devices from Samsung and a wide range of devices for NTT DOCOMO from Panasonic and NEC, while the overall LiMo Membership has expanded to more than 50 companies. We have also produced standardized “white-label” SDKs for LiMo Platform in both native and OMTP BONDI-compliant forms for Members to incorporate into their own branded SDK offerings and implemented an OMTP BONDI-compliant Web runtime within the LiMo Platform. Additionally a number of LiMo’s key stakeholders are performing substantial leadership roles within the JIL initiative. LiMo’s open and non-conflicted approach has attracted deep engagement from major operators and device vendors. Today NTT DOCOMO, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone are joined by LG, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung on the elected Board which is additionally served by Azingo, ACCESS and Wind River. Altogether ten operators representing approximately 1 billion subscribers participate within the overall Membership. Our experience in developing limofoundation.org has given us clear awareness of the imperative of operationalising at pace in order to gain traction beside the traditionally organised alternatives. Therefore, the Board of limofoundation.org now extends an open offer to make our experience in the following areas available to assist in accelerating the Wholesale Applications Community into a fully operational position from which to fulfill its key mission on behalf of the industry: structuring dialogue among the signatories to the initial Memorandum of Understanding; engaging interested vendors; defining the governance model and articles of association; establishing legal entities in multiple jurisdictions as appropriate; preparing the Wholesale Applications Community roadmap; organizing operationally to engage the industry and deliver early practical outcomes. We wish you great success and look forward to hearing from you shortly about how LiMo can provide practical assistance.
Sincerely, Morgan Gillis Executive Director and Member of the Board limofoundation.org
|
