LiMo Foundation Blog

Have you ever stood at the precipice of a decision, knowing that your next step would have significant, irreversible impact? 2007 marked such a moment for the mobile industry – as the founding companies of LiMo Foundation introduced a new organization that while highly complex in its advanced governance, is quite simple and intuitive in its core objective, which is to encourage collaboration in order to foster innovation.

LiMo’s core values, principles, and mission remain unchanged since that date: creation of a competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices, fostered collaboratively and endorsed by the mobile industry at large. And these tenets clearly have resonated – since the public launch of LiMo, dozens of other companies have joined the organization and have helped shape the LiMo Platform. With more than 40 LiMo-compliant handsets deployed in the marketplace, the LiMo Platform made the rapid leap from being just a bright idea to a proven commercial success.

We are once again facing a watershed moment, a defining point in time marking the next stage of evolution for the mobile industry. We at Vodafone, along with our fellow LiMo operator members NTT DOCOMO, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefonica, and Verizon Wireless, are pleased to collectively announce plans to deploy new mobile devices based upon LiMo Platform Release 2 (R2), and the planned 2010 Release 3 (R3). The new handsets will reflect the LiMo Platform’s versatile nature – ranging from highly efficient mass-market phones to highly advanced smartphones incorporating the latest touchscreen, social networking, and rich media technologies.

As the famed American revolutionary, Thomas Paine once said, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way,” we at Vodafone have chosen to lead. We are pleased that a critical part of our announcement today of the Vodafone 360 service is the industry’s first LiMo R2 handset: the Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung, a high-spec device delivering top-end performance, advanced features, lightweight design, and sleek, intuitive access to Vodafone 360 mobile services. This important handset could only be built on a true Industry Platform that is free from technology or business model conflict – as is uniquely the case with the LiMo Platform.