limofoundation.org

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, February 11, — limofoundation.org, a global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open handset platform for the whole mobile industry, announced today the addition of several new member companies, including ACCESS CO., LTD., AMD (NYSE: AMD), FueTrek, Open-Plug, Orange, Renesas Technology Corp., Samsung SDS, SoftBank and STMicroelectronics. These nine new entrants, which expand LiMo’s membership to 32 since launching in January, will join forces with existing LiMo members to deliver an open handset platform for the whole mobile industry.

“LiMo has made great progress in just 12 months and is completely on schedule with its planned deliverables, making this a very exciting period for the mobile industry,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director, limofoundation.org. “This further surge in membership is a clear indication that LiMo is extremely well positioned to quickly deliver exciting new handsets, applications and services that will provide the best possible mobile user experience.”

limofoundation.org is blending community-based development benefits of transparency, innovation and scalability with the best development practices from the mobile community worldwide to create an innovative new business model with widespread adoption.

“LiMo’s unwavering commitment to delivering an open mobile platform combined with its transparent, inclusive and not-for-profit approach is attracting full industry engagement,” said NTT DoCoMo’s Kiyohito Nagata, chairperson of limofoundation.org. “We are excited to have such an impressive array of global companies on board as new members and we welcome their collective contribution, which will speed the creation of the world’s first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices.”

The LiMo Platform™—leveraging standards and open-source projects—is a modular, plug-in-based, hardware-independent architecture built around an open operating system, with a secure run-time environment for support of downloaded applications. LiMo’s application programming interface (API) specifications are available now at limofoundation.

Guido Arnone, Director of Terminals Technology, Vodafone, and vice chairperson of limofoundation.org, added: "This latest wave of new members further strengthens the LiMo ecosystem and will help accelerate our shared vision for a large and open mobile community, which will in turn help unlock innovation with substantial benefits for customers."

LiMo’s technology will be showcased in Booth 8b135, Hall 8 at Mobile World Congress, February 11-14 in Barcelona.

limofoundation.org is open to all vendors and service providers in the mobile communications marketplace, including device manufacturers, operators, chipset manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third-party developers. Foundation members have the opportunity to participate in building an active ecosystem and have the ability to influence the evolution of the platform, leaving them free to provide compelling and differentiated services to customers. 

About limofoundation.org
limofoundation.org is a dedicated consortium of mobile industry leaders working together within an open and transparent governance model—with shared leadership and shared decision making—to deliver an open and globally consistent handset software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use by the whole mobile industry. A full description of the foundation, including the vision, goals, charter, guiding principles, bylaws and membership information, can be found at limofoundation.

Additional Supporting Quotes

ACCESS CO., LTD.
“Our motivation to join LiMo grew out of our longstanding dedication to accelerating Mobile Linux innovation,” said Toru Arakawa, CEO, president and co-founder of ACCESS. “Mobile users are demanding easier-to-use products with more sophisticated applications. Our experience in developing the ACCESS Linux Platform™ and our work with the limofoundation.org will help to meet these demands and hasten the development and delivery of new, innovative products. Together with Orange and the other Founder members, we look forward to playing a key role in bringing Mobile Linux innovations to market.”

AMD
“AMD is committed to driving a strong mobile ecosystem to unleash state-of-the-art graphics and multimedia across a range of handheld devices,” said Adrian Hartog, senior vice president and general manager, AMD’s Consumer Electronics Group. “AMD’s participation in the limofoundation.org is a natural extension of our work to develop innovative, open platforms that enable The Ultimate Visual Experience™ for mobile consumers everywhere.”

FueTrek
“With such significant developments in the mobile value chain we are encouraged to contribute our viable design experience and expertise to LiMo's software platform,” said Hideyuki Fujiki, President and CEO of Fuetrek. “We are very excited to join the lineup of LiMo members and look forward to working with some of the biggest and most innovative players in the mobile industry.”

Open-Plug
“We are very pleased to join the limofoundation.org. As a provider of component technologies and optimized IP for embedded software, Open-Plug is committed to contribute in making LiMo widely adopted by the wireless industry,” said Eric Baissus, Chief Executive Officer of Open-Plug.

Orange
“Orange was one of the first mobile operators to make significant strides in open source innovation,” commented Yves Maitre, senior vice president, devices, Orange. “Our vision is for a truly open mobile community which delivers richer mobile services, more affordable devices and a better experience for our customers. We have already achieved part of this vision through the foundation of the LiPS Forum. Today, we are taking our vision one step further by joining LiMo as a Founder member, unifying the Mobile Linux industry and creating an extraordinary level of openness that will accelerate the delivery of these new and compelling mobile services.”

Renesas Technology Corp.
“Renesas is very pleased to become a member of the limofoundation.org,” said Ikuya Kawasaki, general manager of System Solution Business Unit 2 at Renesas Technology Corp. ”Having an established position as a mobile phone platform provider with its SH-Mobile G series, Renesas believes that it can use its experience to make a valuable contribution to the consortium and to make LiMo the preferred open handset solution.”

Samsung SDS
“Samsung SDS is delighted to become a LiMo member,” said Scott Koo, Vice President, Samsung SDS. “We have grown to provide thought leadership to our customers across all industries and joining LiMo shows our commitment to the creation of an open platform based on Linux which will greatly benefit the mobile industry. ”

STMicroelectronics
“STMicroelectronics is planning to integrate the Linux open handset software platform, as defined by the limofoundation.org, on its leading-edge Nomadik mobile multimedia application processor platform,” said Patrice Meilland, Marketing Director of the Mobile, Multimedia and Communications Group, STMicroelectronics. “We believe that the LiMo technology will take full advantage of the Nomadik application processor’s distributed architecture and accelerated multimedia features.”