VZW Takes a Ride in the LiMo

Verizon Wireless further backed up its recent open-access smack talk on Thursday, announcing that it has chosen – get ready – a Linux OS to be its main operating system for handsets, starting next year.

And where there’s Linux, there’s open development of third-party applications. That validates Verizon’s recent commitment to open development on its network.

Ironically, the No. 2 cellco has become the first U.S. carrier to join the Linux Mobile (LiMo) Foundation, a consortium dedicated to supporting open OS for phones. Ironic, considering that Verizon just scant months ago was defending – in court and out – its walled garden model like a mama hen defends her chicks. But having won a lion’s share of the 700MHz auction and subject to competitive pressure from open-access fan AT&T Inc., Verizon has made a U-turn in policy. And now, the carrier will provide handsets built on a LiMO-created OS stack.

But what of that other Linux-based “open” OS stack? You know, the one from the big search giant?

Google Inc.’s Android platform is simply not collaborative enough, Verizon has been saying, via spokespeople. Because Android is Google, and Google is Android, and so it will always be. That said, Verizon may yet launch handsets based on Android, depending on customer demand, but for now, LiMo is where it’s at.

It’s a bold move with potentially disruptive consequences for the handset market. Most of Verizon’s existing non-smartphones are based on Qualcomm Inc.’s OS. And Qualcomm, incidentally, is a member of the Android-centric Open Handset Alliance.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s smartphones are based on a range of options, including BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows Mobile; and while the carrier will continue to offer a variety of smart OS for the time being, as LiMo gets smarter, those other flavors may fade away. The LiMo stack will be its preferred operating system, in fact.

That’s not the best news for Microsoft Inc. in particular, which said earlier this week that it expected a full 40 percent of smart phones sold in 2012 will be based on Windows Mobile.

Hmm.

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines