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LONDON, England, and TOKYO, Japan, February 4, 2008—LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open handset platform for the whole industry, today announced the on-schedule availability in March 2008 of the first release of the LiMo Platform—the first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile handsets—together with the immediate public availability of the application programming interface (API) specifications.

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

LiMo’s initial Founder members—Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone—collaborated on Release 1 (R1), and nearly all of the enabling technology within R1 has been commercially deployed and proven within handsets enjoyed by consumers today.

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. Linux was selected as the core technology for the LiMo Platform for its acceptability by the whole mobile industry, its rich functionality and scalability, its record of success in embedded systems and mobile phones and its potential to easily “cross-platformize” with other product categories.

Third-party developers will use LiMo’s API specifications—available in beta form immediately at www.limofoundation.org—to build new applications that deliver next-generation consumer experiences across a tremendous, stable base of globally deployed mobile devices. Middleware components for the LiMo Platform can be implemented in either C or C++ programming languages.

Launched in January 2007, the LiMo Foundation 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. More at Limofoundation.org.

LOS ANGELES, CA –Marketwire– Dec 5, ‘07 — Napster has announced that it will provide music content for a new mobile music feature that will be available to customers of Japan’s leading wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo.

Beginning on December 1, NTT DoCoMo customers who subscribe to its “Music & Video Channel” — a service that provides mobile-phone access to music and video programs — have the option to subscribe to a Napster-Tower Records music channel. The channel offers two programs that are updated weekly, each with eight to 10 full-length tracks that users may listen to up to three times during the week.

The first Napster-Tower Records program, “Napster HITS!,” will update weekly with the latest releases and most popular songs. The second, “Tower Records Must-Hear Recommendations,” will be programmed with genre playlists and older chart-toppers. Each will be equipped with links to the Napster Mobile subscription service, Napster’s a la carte ringtone store, and its full-track a la carte store.

The new programs will be accessible through 22 models of NTT DoCoMo handsets. The Napster-Tower Records channel monthly subscription cost is 315 yen ($2.90 USD) and is housed under NTT DoCoMo’s “Music&Video Channel” service, which is also priced 315 yen per month.

Related:

Nokia to Intro “Comes with Music” - 1 Year Free Music Servive -; Ovi and Cellphones with Bio-covers

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, Nov 29, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon today announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE — Long Term Evolution – the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization.

The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone — joint owners of U.S.-based Verizon Wireless - - with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatibility with existing technologies of both companies.

Verizon and Vodafone have a coordinated trial plan for LTE that begins in 2008. Trial suppliers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia- Siemens, and Nortel. These suppliers, along with others in the world community, have contributed significantly towards development of the standards in 3GPP.

Discussions with device suppliers have expanded beyond traditional suppliers such as LG, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson, as consumer electronics companies anticipate embedded wireless functionality in their future products.

“We fully support Verizon’s decision to select LTE as their next generation wireless broadband solution,” said Steve Pusey, Vodafone’s global chief technology officer. “LTE will build on the capabilities of Vodafone’s 3G broadband High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network technology, which is available across the entire Vodafone 3G footprint.”

“Today’s 4G announcement, coupled with our Open Development initiative announced earlier this week present a major growth opportunity for Verizon Wireless,” said Doreen Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon. “Fourth generation’s higher data speeds wi usher in a new era of wireless applications and appliances, all of which can benefit from connecting to the nation’s premier wireless network.”

More at PRNewsWire.

Nov 15, ‘07 — The board of the GSM Association voted to back LTE (3GPP Long Term Evolution) as the mobile broadband standard to succeed HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), the CEO of the group said Tuesday.

The vote is an indication that GSM operators are unified in their support for LTE, and gives them a united front as LTE competes with Qualcomm’s UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) and with WiMax, backed by the computer industry, to become the next mobile broadband technology.

LTE is several times faster than HSPA and could help spur demand for more downloading over cellular networks. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo may become the first operator to widely deploy the new technology, which is expected to be ready by the end of this decade.

Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA, announced the association’s backing of LTE during a speech at the GSM Association’s Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, China, and called on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the leading United Nations agency for communication technologies, to ensure the industry wins the spectrum needed to offer mobile broadband.

NTT DoCoMo is pushing aggressively ahead with plans to speed up its mobile broadband services in Japan, and is looking to LTE to take care of the job. The company counts over half of Japan’s mobile subscribers as its customers and has already started running tests on LTE technology to become its “Super 3G” offering. One advantage to LTE is that it can be used on existing 3G networks.

Download speeds on Super 3G could reach up to 300Mbps (megabits per second), Masao Nakamura, the CEO of NTT DoCoMo, said in a speech, a huge improvement over HSDPA.

DoCoMo is also researching 4G (fourth generation) mobile technology. When it’s commercialized, 4G will promise 1Gbps download speeds, said Nakamura, but in testing DoCoMo has achieved speeds as high as 5Gbps.

Testing on LTE is expected to be finished by 2009, said Matthias Reis, head of the LTE business program at Nokia Siemens Networks. Operators are currently using HSPA, and starting to roll out HSPA+ and IHSPA (Internet-HSPA). By 2009, testing will be done and operators will be able to start rolling out the technology, he said.

Meanwhile the GSMA continues to back current generation wireless technologies. Separately Tuesday, in partnership with Microsoft, it announced a contest to design laptop PCs with HSPA-enabled chipsets to make it easier for the average user to access the Internet via a mobile network.

The LTE/SAE trial initiative (LSTI) delivers initial results and expands to include new members.

Espoo, Finland — Nov 07, ‘07 — The first phase in a trial of an evolved version of today’s mobile phone radio access technology designed to deliver much higher wireless data rates has proven a success. 

The LTE/SAE (Long Term Evolution / System Architecture Evolution) Trial Initiative (LSTI) launched in May this year has reported the successful delivery of the first in a series of test results aimed at proving the potential and benefits of LTE. LTE is being standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a next generation mobile broadband technology.

The Initiative was founded by leading telecommunications companies Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, France Telecom/Orange, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, T-Mobile and Vodafone, and was recently expanded with China Mobile, Huawei, LG Electronics, NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Signalion, Telecom Italia and ZTE joining as new members.

Initial results have confirmed that the technology will deliver high levels of data throughput both for stationary and mobile devices. In more detail, the group has confirmed that the LTE physical layer performance targets in terms of stationary and on-the-move peak data rates can be met. This confirmation was achieved using an agreed set of common transmission profiles, test procedures, and analysis methods. The joint tests were performed using prototype single and multi-antenna radio systems in both lab and urban field environments.

As mobile devices become increasingly sophisticated and handle more and more complex multimedia applications, the LTE/SAE technology is designed to give end users wireless access to growing levels of data throughput on the move.

From a technical perspective, 3GPP LTE technology aims to provide improved spectral efficiency, increased radio capacity, lower latency, lower operating costs for operators, and ultimately new high-performance mobile broadband end-user services. 3GPP LTE is specified to enable downlink/uplink peak data rates above 100/50 Mbps in initial deployment configurations.

The LTE/SAE Trial Initiative is divided into three main phases; Proof of concept, Interoperability and Trial. Joint testing, and reporting of ongoing results will continue out to the end of 2009, with initial LTE system deployments planned for the 2010 timeframe. More at Nokia.

In line with earlier rumors and  speculations, Google has finally unveiled its plans, open platform for mobile devices - Android - to dominate the Mobile industry along with (almost every one in mobile industry worldwide except Microsoft, Nokia & Apple obviously) HTC, Intel, T-Mobile, Sprint, Qualcomm, Broadcom, SiRF, Samsung, nVIDIA, eBay, LG, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, TI and others.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.; BONN, Germany; TAOYUAN, Taiwan; SAN DIEGO, Calif.; SCHAUMBURG, Ill. –November 5, 2007 – A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies today joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders.

This alliance shares a common goal of fostering innovation on mobile devices and giving consumers a far better user experience than much of what is available on today’s mobile platforms. By providing developers a new level of openness that enables them to work more collaboratively, Android will accelerate the pace at which new and compelling mobile services are made available to consumers.

Thirty-four companies have formed the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to develop technologies that will significantly lower the cost of developing and distributing mobile devices and services. The Android platform is the first step in this direction — a fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. Consumers should expect the first phones based on Android to be available in the second half of 2008.

The Android platform will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices. Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and at a much lower cost.

Developers will have complete access to handset capabilities and tools that will enable them to build more compelling and user-friendly services, bringing the Internet developer model to the mobile space. And consumers worldwide will have access to less expensive mobile devices that feature more compelling services, rich Internet applications and easier-to-use interfaces — ultimately creating a superior mobile experience.

Open Software, Open Device, Open Ecosystem

“This partnership will help unleash the potential of mobile technology for billions of users around the world. A fresh approach to fostering innovation in the mobile industry will help shape a new computing environment that will change the way people access and share information in the future,” said Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. “Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models.”

“As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, T-Mobile is committed to innovation and fostering an open platform for wireless services to meet the rapidly evolving and emerging needs of wireless customers,” said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile. “Google has been an established partner for T-Mobile’s groundbreaking approach to bring the mobile open Internet to the mass market. We see the Android platform as an exciting opportunity to launch robust wireless Internet and Web 2.0 services for T-Mobile customers in the US and Europe in 2008.”

“HTC’s trademark on the mobile industry has been its ability to drive cutting-edge innovation into a wide variety of mobile devices to create the perfect match for individuals,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corp. “Our participation in the Open Handset Alliance and integration of the Android platform in the second half of 2008 enables us to expand our device portfolio into a new category of connected mobile phones that will change the complexion of the mobile industry and re-create user expectations of the mobile phone experience.”

More at Google.

Nov 05, ‘07 — Leslie Cauley of USA TODAY is reporting that, Google is set to announce its highly speculated “Google phone“/”Open Phone” later today, citing “people familiar with Google’s plans”.

“Google today plans to announce the formation of an “open phone” coalition, with the goal of developing an operating system for the so-called Google Phone. The new operating system, geared specifically for cellphones, will be used to showcase and promote Google’s ever-growing panoply of services, much like Microsoft has done for decades with its Windows operating system.

Google’s coalition partners, as of Sunday, included Sprint, Motorola, Samsung and Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo, according to people familiar with Google’s plans. They declined to be identified because they weren’t authorized by Google to speak publicly.

The new G-system will be based on Linux, a 15-year-old computer operating system that is available free over the Internet. Google’s version will be overlaid with Java, a popular computer language.

The finished product, expected within months, will unabashedly favor Google applications and services. “What’s being developed is unlikely to be easily transportable to Yahoo and other (service) providers,” says Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation, a non-profit group that supports the adoption of “Linux-based” operating systems in the mobile industry. More at USA Today.