OpenMoko: open source mobile phone

While there are plenty of mobile phones which use a version of embedded Linux as their basic operating system, and a handful of companies willing to sell Linux-based software platforms to hardware manufacturers, there's always been a fairly obvious gap in the market: a phone on which you can actually install Linux applications at will, rather than from a limited set provided by the manufacturer or carrier.

Linux phone home: FIC's sample OpenMoko handset (also allegedly available in orange.)

Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC) hopes to fill that gap in January 2007, when it launches the first phone based on its OpenMoko platform

The project was outlined at a conference on open source and mobile phones in Amsterdam today by Sean Moss-Pultz, an FIC product manager who argues that such a product could help mobile phones avoid the vendor lock-in that characterises the modern PC industry.

"The phone is potentially going to be the next PC, so it needs to be open," he said.

"As an end user, I have no ability to upgrade my phone. And as an application developer, the platforms for the most part are proprietary and scattered. What we're doing is building a mobile phone with a very simple core set of communications applications. We're going to build an open source mobile phone, give away the SDK, and work with developers in a symbiotic relationship."

Based on the Linux 2.6.17 kernel, OpenMoko software will be made freely available for developers. Moss-Pultz explained the Motorola-baiting name thus: "The C has been changed to a K as a tribute to all the hackers who drive this open source world."

FIC will only profit from the enterprise if it manages to flog its own handsets based on the platform. The first models, which are set to be priced from around $US350, will use a 2.5G GSM chipset from Texas Instruments and run on a Samsung 2410 226MHz processor.

The cheapest models will sport 128MB of SDRAM and flash memory, while a version with 1GB of flash memory is also planned. Support for GPS will also be built in: "When your mobile phone knows where it is, it can do things that artificial intelligence can only dream of," Moss-Pultz said.

Call me: OpenMoko's phonebook application: so far, so Outlook, frankly.

One notable absence is any form of higher-speed networking, such as 3G, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. "The first version of the hardware will not support Wi-Fi, but we're working on versions that will. The problem with Wi-Fi is that it's so power-hungry."

For the first release, the emphasis was placed on a decent display size (the first model sports a 2.6 inch VGA screen), Moss-Pultz said.

While the ability to generate applications at will could ignite developer enthusiasm, that strategy hasn't exactly made Linux on the desktop a mass-market proposition. Moss-Pultz admits that could take a while. "With this development initially, we are targeting the power user. We'll work with them to make it a mass-market product. The goal is to make a smart phone for the masses."

Finger fun: The basic interface for dialling on an OpenMoko device.

As the price tag indicates, mass-market apparently doesn't equate to discount pricing for FIC. "I don't want anyone to think that Linux is for cheap devices," Moss-Pultz said. "We want this to be better than any phone out there."

FIC plans to offer a 'certified feed' of applications it has already tested, and anticipates two types: 'finger apps' which work via a simple touchscreen interface, and 'stylus apps' for more complicated tasks.

Quite how the brand will be promoted isn't clear; Moss-Pultz appears to be placing his initial faith in word of mouth and the company's regional sales channels.

A subsequent criticism raised at the conference was that FIC's market prospects may be limited, given that it has no carrier tie-ins in the European or North American markets. Moss-Pultz argued that the model of buying phones entirely independent of carriers, which is already standard practice in Asia, would eventually dominate worldwide.

There's also a potential upside, Moss-Pultz argued: "For the first time, there's going to be a situation where carriers can have handsets that are specifically tailored for niche vertical markets."

FIC claims a manufacturing capacity of more than a million phones a month, with most of its current offerings selling straight into China.

Moss-Pultz denied that the plan was designed to counter its major Taiwanese rival HTC, which is firmly in the Windows Mobile camp. "HTC makes great hardware, [but] they've chosen to go the Microsoft route. We think the smart phone market is plenty big enough for Symbian, plenty big enough for Windows Mobile, and plenty big enough for OpenMoko."