However, despite the LiMo Foundation's stated aim of creating a shared implementation -- as opposed to the LiPS Forum's desire to create a unified standard for mobile Linux -- Motorola is arguably creating its own native implementation in MOTOMAGX.
Pointing out that the LiPS Forum has already released a set of APIs, Weinberg continues: "LiMo is a group of companies that have got together and decided to create an implementation, not a standard, based on de facto standardisation. They will share a code of implementation exclusively among themselves, and at most will share a documentation of a subset of APIs they have created."
But Gillis is confident that, when it arrives, the LiMo implementation will bear fruit. "The progress made thus far by the LiMo Foundation platform provides good evidence that it is a platform that is likely to be widely adopted within the mobile sector," he says. "That's based on the composition and commitment of the original founder group, and [the recently announced] new wave of members, including important new members such as LG. One expectation is that there will be further important membership announcements before the end of the year, and this will signal there is a very good probability of broad adoption."
"The two different groupings [LiPS and LiMo] saw the same need within the industry at more or less the same time and got started in slightly different ways. It is still very much in the early stages," continues Gillis, before suggesting that it would be "quite plausible for convergence to happen in the coming period".
"I have no specific timescale in mind, but the naturalness and logic of this is evident. Our aims and objectives are very similar, if not identical," Gillis adds, while denying that any discussions have taken place between the LiPS Forum and LiMo Foundation regarding a merger.
Weinberg told ZDNet.co.uk that the LiPS Forum would welcome co-operation with the LiMo Foundation. "I can see all sorts of ways to work together -- if we were to merge our efforts that would be fine," he says, pointing to the LiPS Forum's track record of collaboration. "Last year we announced co-operation with another important standards body, the Open Source Development Labs, which has since merged with the Free Standards Group and is now called the Linux Foundation. Rather than duplicate efforts, LiPS will build on top of that in the mobile services and applications arena."
Yet all the collaboration in the world would mean nothing without the involvement of the mobile operators. Happily for mobile Linux, some providers have seen a lot of potential down the open-source route -- Gartner's Jones suggests that they see a unified approach to the platform as a way to reduce the power of the handset manufacturers. Vodafone in particular has become an notable sponsor, announcing last year that it wanted to pare its range of mobile operating systems down to a triumvirate of Windows Mobile, Symbian/Series 60 and Linux.
"Vodafone chose Linux as one of its three terminal platforms because it wanted an open, competitive alternative to incumbent proprietary platforms, offering manufacturers greater freedom to innovate," a spokesperson said. "The key advantages of Linux for Vodafone are that it enables manufacturers to share development costs, thereby enabling greater product flexibility at lower costs."
"Linux also supports open participation in contribution, development and test environments, providing the basis for continuous quality improvement," adds the spokesperson. "Open source is also extremely good at providing basic assets at a lower cost while the flexible licensing frameworks encourage competition and innovation."
Vodafone's spokesperson predicts that products "in the mid to high tier" will appear in the operator's lineup in 2008-2009.
Ultimately, it may not matter what operating system a smartphone is running on. In fact, it may not even matter whether the phone is classed as "enterprise grade".
As the iPhone has recently demonstrated, an increasing number of business applications, such as NetSuite and WebEx, can work on any phone that has a browser. "Don't look upon mobile Linux as a platform to write applications to at this point in time -- it is currently a platform on which to run Java or mobile web applications," suggests Gartner's Jones. "There is a strong trend of web technologies driving into the mobile space. In a sense, the cellular platform is becoming indistinguishable from a slow broadband link."
"At the thick client end of the scale, you worry about the APIs, having a lightweight database on the device, salesforce automation, CRM -- there you do worry about the operating system on the platform," says Jones. "But, increasingly, there are the less critical applications, where you are operating within signal coverage, where the web model is going to be good enough."
David Meyer reported from London for ZDNet UK
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If it is barely ready for the server and desktop fleet of most organisations, why would any other derivative be any more ready for other purposes? I don't see how increasing the footprint makes it any better to manage, deploy and update with primitive tools compared to enterprise frameworks like Tivoli and Patrol for the Unix, Mainframe, Windows and other enterprise ready environments