Wendong’s Smart Phone Weblog

The company is buying Chinese mobile software developer China MobileSoft, which has developed a version of Linux optimized for mobile phones. PalmSource will take CMS’ software and run the Palm OS over its kernel and certain Linux services, maintaining the Palm user interface as well as middleware and some applications.

Reaction from the developer and user community has been mixed, with some wondering if the move represents a death knell for Palm OS. PalmSource, of course, says no way. The announcement may be an admission that what’s going on with the Palm OS right now isn’t working, …

[TheFeature]: Palm OS Goes Linux

[pcmag.com] Motorola Licenses iTunes, Announces Five New Phones

[linuxdevices.com] Motorola announces third Linux/Java phone: A780

[pcmag.com] Pictures of new Motorola phones

This is just a quick thought in my mind. I believe that platforms like Palm OS, Linux and Symbian can not compete with Windows Mobile on easy-to-use programming languages and dev tools. J2ME is good but has a lot of limitations due to the sandbox approach. Now we have Mono project to port .NET Framework to Linux platform. On the mobile side, instead of creating another common running engine like AppForge Booster, why can’t somebody just try to port .NET CF to other platforms? I know this will be a very challenging job. But if somebody can do it, we can use Microsoft tools to write across-platform mobile applications.

LinuxDevices.com: Motorola launches enterprise Linux smartphone in China
Motorola A768 Specs [Chinese]

[update]: It supports MIDP 2.0, SyncML and more
Press release and specs [English]

Quotes from this article on linuxdevices.com:

"While Symbian will be the market share leader in the next 24 to 36 months, thanks to its endorsement by market makers Nokia and NTT DoCoMo, Linux will threaten for long-term dominance. Linux leads other platforms in openness and low cost - factors that are essentials to success in a market defined by tight margins, rapid innovation, and standards adherence."

Interesting conflicting predictions:

Zelos Group: Linux headed for worldwide smartphone domination
ABI Research: Symbian heads ‘to top’ of smartphone boom
Gartner: Symbian will lose smartphone battle