A 3G Linux phone for sub $US100

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 03 February 2008 15:25

Business IT - Technology

NXP Semiconductors and Purple Labs have introduced a reference design for 3G Linux phone offering video telephony, music playback, high-speed Internet browsing and video streaming that they say will cost operators less than $US100. They claim that their Purple Magic phone, which will debut at the global mobile congress in Barcelona later this month, will serve as a reference design for phone manufacturers creating entry-level 3G handsets, including those targeting mobile markets such as Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

"NXP believes in Linux as the basis for the next generation of mobile handset innovation," said Dan Rabinovitsj, senior vice president and general manager, cellular business, NXP Semiconductors. "We've been working closely with Purple Labs to develop Linux-based mobile terminals that meet the cost and performance requirements of the mass market. Our joint achievement is to bring the advantages of an Open OS environment to the mass market based on industry leading silicon and software."

NXP is in the top 10 semiconductor companies. It was founded by Philips more than 50 years ago and today has 37,000 employees in more than 20 countries sales of around Eur 5 billion. Purple Labs is a venture capital backed US company founded in 2001 specialising in Linux based mobile products.