LiMo Foundation Blog

I recently read an extremely interesting special section in The Economist, concerned in particular with how mobile communications, and "mobile finance", was positively affecting emerging economies. One figure that stuck with me was that adding ten cell phones into a population of 100 people had the net effect of raising the country's GDP by 0.8%; that's a simply staggering figure relative to the investment involved. Particularly in countries that have been historically lacking in infrastructure, mobile communications can be paradigm-changing: it allows instant communication with places and people that might have been days off, or otherwise inaccessible. By providing a flow of information of all kinds, where none existed before—especially over long distances, mobile communications make new markets and new products possible in ways that would have been out of reach otherwise.

Today, more people access the Internet, globally, from cell phones than from traditional computers. Many people have never accessed the Internet any other way. This is a continuation of the major "paradigm shift" which began in 1995, when "the Worldwide Web" moved from being a province belonging solely to the technically adept to something which was accessible and usable by anyone at all—with the right equipment, anyway. The "right equipment" was, of course, hideously expensive in global terms: a computer costs at least a couple of thousand dollars.

Today, we see cell phones that are, in terms of power and performance, the full equivalent of "desktops" or "laptops" of only a few years ago, at a fraction of the cost. And the cost only keeps getting pushed down. A phone that is capable of accessing the Internet, and hence the world, is within the reach of more and more people in the world. And, as The Economist points out, having that phone enriches and improves people's lives in tangible and quantifiable ways.

Free software vs. open source software?  It’s a frequent ideological debate in the media.  Matt Asay, a CNET reporter and VP of Business Development at open source company Alfresco, had a good blog on this recently called “Free software is dead. Long live open source”.

Comparing free software to open source software is difficult and, fortunately for most developers, irrelevant.  One is more of a social movement (free software) and the other is more of a development approach (open source software).  The reason it’s mostly irrelevant to developers is pragmatism:  developers are busting their butts to create some cool new innovation and what they care about is finding good code they can use.

We’ve been talking about pragmatism and open source software for some time now at Black Duck. Pragmatism sounds like a dry topic, but for software developers and LiMo members it represents a smarter way of getting work done. Finding good code to use -- whether it’s described as free and/or open source, where it meets business requirements -- speeds development in today’s multi-source development model, reduces costs, and frees developers to be more creative. It’s not an ideological discussion - it’s a pragmatic decision to use the best code available, regardless of source, as long as it meets requirements for functionality, security and quality.

This is the first part a series which initiates the discussion on the users’ perspective. I will then move on to discuss the Developers’ perspective and Developer programs, and finally look at what constitutes a great platform.

A funny thing happened on my way to the forum. Wired said Java was tired. Google went over to Sun and threatened their host, "Nice language, Java. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it. And that MIDP2 of yours is... well, all we have for now, so fix it, or else we will." (Paraphrase of an actual meeting that took place in 2006).  Objective-C arose from obscurity as javascript, PHP, and Java(tm) programmers abandoned their posts to code for Steve. Google tried to reinvent the wheel with Dalvik but Sun thinks they may have stolen the wheel. And the almighty iPhone arose out of the fragmentation that is JavaME (designed with pride in Cupertino) and a suckfest of Windows Mobile "smart" phones.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the state of Java, circa 2009. A friend told me today, Java is dead. Fiddlestix. Boloney. I say. You can't kill an idea. For the masses of mobile Java programmers out there, whom I now represent as self-appointed Shadow Curator of the Java Community. Process, I intend to propose a new JSR, #10K, The Umbrella Anti-fragmentation, Anti-Apple, Pro-Carrier, Super Secure, Pro-Java, Super-WORA, Super-gluecode, JavaME FX MX NO-FAIL UBER-CDC FastGC and Superset of SE to the JCP.

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.

What a day today! We here at LiMo Foundation are very pleased to have issued two press announcements this morning: the first is a broad commitment from global operators on LiMo’s Board of Directors to deploy next-generation handsets based on the LiMo R2 and anticipated LiMo R3 platforms; the second is details the industry’s first such delivery of a LiMo R2 handset as brought to market by Vodafone and Samsung as part of Vodafone’s exciting announcement of Vodafone 360.

It goes without saying that these announcements are the culmination of countless hours of effort by all parties involved – a heartfelt ‘congratulations’ is in order for the dedicated teams at Vodafone and Samsung -- and also to the various other companies in LiMo that have contributed to development of the LiMo R2 Platform and/or to the landmark Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung handset. There’s a great ecosystem taking root within LiMo – both in the sense of the broad array of companies that are contributing into the LiMo Platform, and also in the sense of the very imminent and very tangible commercial opportunity that is taking shape for LiMo members that are providing value-added technology and services for the LiMo solutions that are now coming to market.

Be sure to keep tabs on our blog later today and over the next several days for further updates and ‘insider’ perspectives from some of the members that have been leading these very exciting activities.

As the premium sponsor of Over the Air 2009, OMTP is pleased to invite you to join us at the Imperial College London on Sept 25-26.

This is an event that brings together developers, designers, artists, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and mobile geeks from across the industry for two days of development, learning and fun. We'll feature sessions covering a range of topics and technologies, hands-on learning, an over-night hack-a-thon (with prizes) and more!

We have several speaking slots talking about BONDI and the APIs and security as well as a keynote from Nick Allott, our CTO in the first morning slot. We have a sponsor area in the restaurant/party area where we have a couple of sofas, tables and chairs and we will use this area to talk to developers about BONDI as well as give some demos.  Our co-sponsors (Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2 Litmus and Perfecto Mobile) will also be present.

Our aim is to get BONDI better understood by developers and also to get some new example widgets to show what BONDI can deliver.   There are also some fabulous prizes in store for top BONDI entries that enter the in-event competition; so get developing for your chance to win!!

Just remember to register for OTA at http://overtheair.org/blog/event-registration/

I just returned from the Open Source in Mobile (OSiM) conference in Amsterdam. It was an exciting and informative event, and provided a unique view of an industry in the midst of an open source revolution.  More than any other industry, the mobile sector is aggressively leveraging open source to propel the rapid pace of innovation they require – after all, the next generation of computing is at stake here.  Web-based companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter led the way in the use of open source for infrastructure. But sophisticated mobile devices and the complex service networks behind them are stretching and testing open source at new levels.

Listen to a podcast of my thoughts and observations about the OSiM conference here: http://ducks.blackducksoftware.com/%7Ewebmedia/_Podcasts/BDS-Peter-Vescuso-9-18-09.mp3

For me, the key takeaways from OSiM are the new pragmatism and sophistication in the use of open source in multi-source development, and the significant success OSS has enabled in terms of innovation.

In general, wide-eyed idealism seems to have given way to a more practical approach. Participants seemed eager to dispel naïve notions of open source as “perfect and free” (a quote from Art Landro – more below), and focus on the real and significant benefits it enables along with the strategy required for success.

I was at OSiM last year in Berlin, which bubbled much more with unbridled enthusiasm for OSS. Little of that this year, and no ideological debates, but plenty of “here’s what it really takes to be successful” with open source.

An important underlying dynamic in the mobile industry to date is that investment costs have been rising faster than the corresponding return on that investment. As user expectations have increased, so has the software burden of developing ever-more sophisticated handsets and the corresponding backend infrastructure.

This investment return dynamic has been a fundamental driver for the adoption of open source software in mobile devices though there are, of course, many other important factors such as the open scrutiny of code and architecture which reduces security risks and wider access to engineering skills that improves quality of software and provides access to innovation.

LiMo Foundation, as many others in the industry, is a firm believer of the benefits of using Linux and open source software. The recently announced LiMo R2 platform is built around key community open source software components such as GTK, D-Bus, GStreamer and BlueZ. Since the source code for these components is publicly available, it is possible to download, analyse, produce and capture metadata from that code. This is what the ohloh web service does. Using ohloh, it is possible to examine the history and evolution of an open source project in considerable detail and determine amongst other things, who contributed to the code and when. This ability to create data about source code is another significant benefit of open source and it opens the door for quantitative analysis based around measuring source lines of code (SLOC).

Never has the time been better in terms of opportunities for mobile applications developers. Up until recently, the 3^rd party mobile developer market place had been a tough place to be, but the light is now at the end of the tunnel.

The main issues encountered by developers are all too familiar:-

• *Multiple platforms (which one(s) to develop for))
• *Fragmentation within platforms (The WORA (Write Once Run Anywhere)promise of Java2 that was never realised, but that is a topic for another blog)
• *Handset capabilities (memory, screen, interaction and services)
• *Application discovery, distribution, installation, and payment

So let’s see what has changed to make life better for us all.