As Nokia going the way of WP7, increased attention is falling on the
remaining “alternative” smartphone platforms still being developed.
MeeGo may be up in the air for now, but what about the other games in
town? The Linux-based LiMo platform continues to develop, with today
marking the launch of LiMo version 4.
You can think of LiMo as Android-by-committee. Though both are based
upon a Linux core, LiMo avoids having any one company take the reigns of
its development, collecting input from a consortium of partner
companies. Major smartphone players like Samsung and Vodafone are teamed
up with electronics giants including Panasonic and NEC.
LiMo 4 shows progress from what may have seemed more like a high-end
feature phone project, to something resembling what we’d find in a
proper smartphone. After all, the OS will now support multitasking,
location-based features, and physical sensors; all add to the sort of
platform flexibility we’re used to amongst smartphones. The problem is
that LiMo is middle ware, leaving it up to phone manufacturers to deal
with UI issues, and that’s the part of the software we actually interact
with and associate with one OS or another. Without a
clearly-identifiable presence on phones, it’s tough to get developers
behind it, coding apps, and growing the platform into something iOS or
Android-like. Still, the features coming to LiMo 4 seem like a step in
the right direction, so we’ll keep an open mind for now.
Source : Limo Foundation
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