Aussie software in a billion mobiles

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 04 November 2010 17:29

IT Industry - Development

Software from Australia's Open Kernel Labs has been deployed in more than one billion mobile handsets.

Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs) was spun out of NICTA in 2006 to commercialise virtualisation software for mobile devices. That software has now been deployed in more than on billion devices.

"As OK Labs deployments surpass the one billion mark, we continue to invest in new technology and to launch new products," said Steve Subar, CEO, OK Labs. "In 2010 alone, we released the OK Labs Mass-Market Smartphone Solution, the Nirvana Phone concept (together with Citrix) and, most recently, OK Labs SecureIT Mobile, a solution for secure and certified mobile devices."

Virtualisation is used in mobile devices to isolate and protect real-time aspects of the system, and to encapsulate GPL open source components so that proprietary code need not be disclosed.

The announcement of the one billion device milestone was welcomed by Federal and NSW politicians.

Kim Carr, Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, described OK Labs as "an internationally successful company producing cutting-edge products based on Australian research and innovation,", while his colleague, Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy, said "This is a shining example of the way publicly-funded research can ultimately produce impressive commercial outcomes."

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