First release of LiMo Platform announced

The LiMo Foundation an industry consortium dedicated to creating the first open, hardware-independent, Linux-based operating system for mobile devices, has announced the first release of the platform, in March 2008.

At the same time, the group will make the application programming interface (API) specifications publicly available, in order to attract developers.

The first release combines technologies already proven in the market in leading handsets. This will allow LiMo handsets to register in the marketplace more quickly than handsets based on unproven technology.

Release 1 of the platform was developed by a collaboration of LiMo’s founder members, including Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone.

The platform is a modular, plug-in-based, hardware-independent architecture built around the Linux open operating system. It has a secure run-time environment to support downloaded applications.

Third-party developers will be able to use LiMo’s API specifications, and middleware components for the LiMo Platform can be implemented in either C or C++ programming languages.