Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
In less than a month since then, LiMo has forged ahead. Most significantly this week US mobile operator Verizon became the first US carrier to join LiMo. It will fill the final seat on LiMo's board of directors and Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon was reported saying that he expects Verizon to sell both simple and 'smart' phones using LiMo next year, and that Linux Mobile "will rapidly become our preferred operating system."
There was more good news for LiMo this week. The organisation added a clutch of other new members taking its total to over 40: Infineon Technologies, Kvaleberg AS, Mozilla Corporation, Red Bend Software, Sagem Mobiles, SFR and SK Telecom.
The addition of Mozilla caught the eye of Ovum analyst Adam Leach, who said: "Ovum believes that the decision by the Mozilla Foundation to join LiMo is of significant strategic importance to both foundations." He explained that, latest recruits notwithstanding "LiMo membership is still biased towards mobile not open source players."
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organisation that sponsors the Mozilla open source project that is responsible for the development of the Firefox Web browser, the second most used Web browser next to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. According to Leach: "For LiMo it is a validation of its collaborative development model and the IPR safe harbour that it creates; allowing proprietary and open source software to co-exist within a single platform. Mozilla also brings an established and much respected developer community to the platform.
"For Mozilla, joining LiMo represents an opportunity to establish a Mozilla-based mobile browser in the market by using LiMo as a distribution channel. The addressable market for full Web browsers on mobile is set to grow substantially over the next three years and this provides Mozilla with a chance to catch-up with Webkit-based browsers such as those used within Safari on the iPhone and by Nokia on S60 phones, Opera Mobile and ACCESS NetFront."
Leach contrasted LiMo's progress with that of the Google backed Open Handset Alliance and its Android platform, saying: "Other than a couple of early prototype demos at this year's Mobile World Congress, [Android] has yet to show further convincing progress.
LiMo in contrast had 18 LiMo handsets from seven vendors - including LG Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic and Samsung - on show at the Mobile World Congress, in February.
David Bass
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