Mobile Linux set for take off

The number of mobile phones running on Linux is predicted to rocket in the next five years, with more than 200 million in use by 2012 - up from just 8.1 million currently.

Cheat Sheets

♦ Mobile location-based services
♦ FMC
♦ 3G

Linux take-up has traditionally trailed compared to the big daddy of mobile OS platforms: Symbian - thought to have more than 60 per cent market share. But this is about to change, according to ABI research.

Stuart Carlaw, research director at ABI, said a number of barriers to Linux taking off are disappearing with industry bodies working to promote the open source OS.

There are also an increasing number of environments available for Linux application development - such as Trolltech's Greensuite.

In addition to these factors, Carlaw said many phone makers and mobile operators want to customise their handsets and Linux fits the bill much more than Microsoft or Symbian. "There's a lot of carrier support for it as well," he said.

Carlaw added it's not a question of 'if' but 'when' mobile Linux will take off.