Man, remember LiMo? Amazingly, there are some 40 handsets on the market today based on the platform, but precisely none of them are boasting a profile as high as any one of the Android smartphones also on store shelves. As Motorola scrambles to re-make itself and prove that its CLIQ is a force to be reckoned with in the burgeoning Android phone sector, the company has also decided to remove itself as a "founding member" of the LiMo Foundation. The company recently noted that the outfit was sliding down to "associate member," stating that "at this time it feels that the Android platform gives it a richer, more consistent foundation with strong support for the ecosystem and developer community." That's a pretty damning statement to our ears, but we won't go so far as to call the breakup between Moto and LiMo official; we're guessing "it's complicated" would be entirely more appropriate here.

[Via phonescoop]

This time last year, you might have thought that LiMo was waning in the shadow of Android's eminence, but we're witnessing the vanguard of a new resurgence in the form of the Vodafone 360 H1 and M1 handsets by Samsung. Being the first LiMo Release 2 devices, they'll come with a bagful of fancy 3D UI visualizations to splash atop 3.5- and 3.2-inch touchscreen displays, with the bigger H1 (pictured) getting the AMOLED treatment, WiFi, HSDPA and 16GB of internal memory, and the M1 receiving HSDPA and 1GB of expandable memory, but no WiFi. They are making their debut alongside Vodafone's new 360 online platform, which takes over from the former Live service. You can expect it to bring Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk integration, as well as an app store to compete with the other heavy hitters. The M1's three color options are pictured after the break.

Read - Vodafone 360 press release
Read - Vodafone 360 H1 product page
Read - Vodafone 360 H1 hands-on
Read - Vodafone 360 M1 product page

The LiMo Foundation's platform is far from vaporware -- countless Japanese domestic market handsets run it in one form or another, which makes sense considering that NTT DoCoMo, NEC, and Panasonic are all counted among its founding members -- but outside the land of the rising sun, LiMo's had very little end-user impact even as it's collected big-name members and released several rounds of specs and whitepapers over the last year and a half. To a certain extent, that's by design; unlike Android, LiMo is as much about creating synergies for manufacturers and carriers as it is about giving subscribers flashy user interfaces, but a new Samsung for Vodafone leaked on Boy Genius Report today suggests that we might be getting flashy UIs nonetheless. We don't know what this phone will ultimately be called, but it doesn't take more than a couple glances to pick up on the fact that it's relatively high-end, equipped with an 8 megapixel cam and full AMOLED touhscreen. The social-oriented interface looks seriously tricked out with faces (hopefully of people the user knows) moving in and out in three dimensions -- usability is an open question, but at least it's pretty to stare at, which is really what a good phone's all about anyway, right? Word on the street is that this might be announced at a London event on the 24th, but here's our question: where's Verizon in all this?

Though it doesn't have the star power of Android or (arguably) the Symbian Foundation, LiMo's still slaving away on devices and picking up support, largely in Japan where NTT DoCoMo played a major role in its creation. Following a finalization of its Release 2 specs a couple months back, the Foundation's now adding a couple additional big players into its ranks that should help it penetrate even further in Japan, too: KDDI, rival to DoCoMo and operator of the country's CDMA airwaves, and Immersion, a (the?) big player in haptics. Japan's Softbank is already on board, too, so at this point, these guys pretty much have the Japanese wireless trifecta under their belts.

It's a bit late, but the LiMo Foundation has wrapped up work on specifications for its second major release, aptly named R2. Major improvements over R1 include enhanced support for location-based services, media, integrated PIM functionality, and "advanced security applications," which we take to mean VPN and the like; more importantly, though, R2 integrates the OMTP's BONDI 1.0 specification, which gives manufacturers, carriers, and developers a common target platform for widgets and mobile web apps. If you're itching to run out and buy a LiMo R2 device of your own, hold up -- they won't be in the market until the fourth quarter of the year, assuming the schedule doesn't slip.

[Via Phone Scoop]

While Android is sure enjoying the spotlight underneath that HTC Magic display, the LiMo Foundation is quietly building an army to rule the mobile realm once and for all. Dramatics aside, the Linux consortium did manage to secure another six members here at Mobile World Congress including Telefónica SA, Aromasoft Corporation, Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications, Marvell Semiconductor, Opera Software ASA, and Swisscom. Of course, all these formalities really mean nothing if the group can't manage to get a reputable handset out the door, so for now, we'll say "congrats" and "hurry up, why don'tcha?"

That other massive international collaboration for a standardized Linux-based mobile platform, the LiMo Foundation, is still toiling away at building its global empire -- but the good news is that Release 2 is now ready to rumble, albeit a few weeks behind schedule. The new version -- a collaboration among a slew of Foundation members -- adds enhancements for location-based services, improved security, high-end multimedia, and other miscellany that hope to make LiMo competitive with the best that Android and others have to offer in 2009. Speaking of 2009, LiMo now says that six "major" carriers have committed to launching handsets running the latest version of the platform this year -- NTT DoCoMo, Telefonica, Orange, SK Telecom, Verizon, and Vodafone -- which is a pretty powerful testament to the pull that LiMo has at the moment. Delivering on those commitments, of course, is another matter altogether.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Without much fanfare, the Samsung i800 was canned at the tail end of last month. When asked why, Orange simply noted that it was pulled in order to "prepare a more competitive Linux mobile." A recent writeup at Ostatic takes a hard look at whether this simple withdrawal is really a sign of things to come, and it suggests that ALP could see support fade as the major players in Linux (and maybe even Nokia) step to the plate. One analyst was even quoted as saying that "having Google's brand behind Symbian could very well mean 'game over' for mobile Linux in the mobile phone market," and we honestly can't disagree too vehemently with that assertion. Of course, the LiMo Foundation has stated its intentions to not back down from the mighty Google, but sometimes, even the best intentions fall through. Guess time will tell, huh?

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Gotta be a lot of pressure out there in Mountain View lately, what with the LiMo Foundation's 20-plus shipping handsets, 50-plus members, and seemingly no shortage of momentum heading into the second half of the year. Despite all that, though, Android's Eric Chu says that it still has no interest in exploring a partnership with that other 800-pound mobile Linux consortium out there, primarily because it doesn't want too many cooks in the kitchen while it puts the finishing touches on its user experience. Speaking of finishing touches, Chu says that the core platform is now roughly 80 percent complete and still expects it to be open-sourced and delivered on production handsets by the end of the year. By then, LiMo could very well have another round or two of phones on the market -- and with the Symbian threat as real as ever, Google certainly may not be sitting as pretty as they seemed to be way back at the announcement.

[Via mocoNews]

The deafening silence out of the Android camp as of late has left plenty of room for competitors to steal some of the spotlight to advance their own causes, and the LiMo Foundation certainly seems to be doing what it can to take advantage of the opportunity. The "other" Linux-based mobile platform already has a key advantage over Android and the Open Handset Alliance -- products that are actually shipping -- and they're working to wide the gap here by announcing that they've now pushed their member count over the half-century mark. As usual, there are a few heavy hitters in this round, too: ZTE, Motorola spinoff Freescale Semiconductor, and Telecom Italia headline the eleven-strong class of carriers, component manufacturers, and software shops. Separately, they've announced that 21 LiMo phones now grace the market, so it's looking like these guys are here to stay regardless of what the Android camp's up to.

In the wake of the LiMo Foundation's huge announcement that it has netted Verizon Wireless to sit on its board, everyone wants to know: what does this mean for Verizon's official (meaning non-"Any Apps, Any Device") lineup, and where does this leave Android? LAPTOP has posted a good summary of some pressing questions and answers, revealing that LiMo-based devices won't launch on Big Red until next year anyway -- so there's really nothing to sweat about in the short term. As the carrier's lofty board seat might have suggested, it intends LiMo to percolate through its entire product range, starting with dumbphones and moving to smartphones (it is Linux, after all) as time goes on. Finally, it emphasized that the move certainly doesn't spell doom for Android; for consumers, the worst case is that they'd have to bring their own Android handset to the table (assuming there are compatible, unlocked CDMA devices available), but if Verizon senses that Android demand is strong enough, there's still nothing stopping it from bringing some hardware into its official stable. Either way, the Age of Linux is upon Verizon customers, which we're thinking is probably going to end up being a good thing.

Following a new round of partnership announcements back in February, LiMo Foundation today added 8 new members, bringing the grand total to 40 -- and perhaps most notably, Verizon Wireless becomes the first American carrier to team up with the group and the Foundation's final board member (in other words, they seem to be taking this initiative pretty seriously). Other new players include South Korea's SK Telecom, France's SFR, Sagem, chipmaker Infineon, and Mozilla, suggesting that there'll be plenty of mobile Firefox support for LiMo's nascent platform. LiMo represents the largest Linux-based threat to Android's plans for world domination, having announced its initiative some time before Google while collecting a veritable who's-who of world players from NTT DoCoMo to manufacturers like LG and Motorola -- and with the depth of Verizon's commitment to this, evident by its nabbing of an actual board seat, we wouldn't be surprised to see LiMo-based products actually go beyond its Any Apps, Any Device initiative and get real on the carrier's official lineup.

The latest word on the street suggests that Verizon is getting ready to announce that it's throwing its formidable weight behind the LiMo Foundation, that "other" mobile Linux group that's attracted some serious muscle behind founding member NTT DoCoMo. With Verizon's Any Apps, Any Device initiative on tap for this year, a wide-open platform like LiMo makes perfect sense -- and as folks are pointing out, the move wouldn't preclude the carrier from jumping on the Android bandwagon just the same once the hardware and software have ripened enough for customer consumption. If this all goes down, it'd mark the very first American carrier to sign on with LiMo -- and since Verizon's European spouse, Vodafone, is already on board, the synergy's pretty obvious. What's more, media outlets (ours included) have gotten word that LiMo will be announcing several new partners in the morning, including a "major US wireless service provider." Wonder who that could be?

[Via mocoNews]

There's little doubt that Linux has quite a bit going for it in the mobile realm, but a recent report put out by ABI Research asserts that just about one in every five mid- to high-end handsets sold in 2013 will boast a Linux-based OS. Citing the mounting momentum behind LiMo Foundation as well as the alleviation of "issues with framework fragmentation and silicon requirements," the research firm is projecting Linux to be an integral part of some 20-percent of higher-end mobiles in just 5 years. ABI Research's VP even noted that "Linux OS solutions will be far more cost-effective than incumbent solutions, even when silicon requirements are taken into account, given that a fuller application layer will be included in the standard package and that the burden of customization falls mostly on the independent software vendor." Hey, you won't find us kvetching about the proliferation of open-source.

[Via mocoNews]

Don't look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you're one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the "first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices." According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will "spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members," and it's restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. Not one to sit idly, the entity has also announced that Release 2 is currently "being specified and developed," and should escape testing and greet the real world in late 2008.

[Via PhoneScoop]