Message #1636 From:
TheMachine Date: August 20, 2009 10:42:43 AM
Immersion is staying busy! LiMO strategy gets clearer, signs haptics player Immersion
By CAROLINE GABRIEL
Published: 11 August, 2009
With all the mobile Linux attention on Android and
Maemo, what of the LiMO Foundation? The group risks being overshadowed
by the other two, for the very reason it touts as its key advantage -
it is a true consortium, rather than being effectively controlled by a
single vendor with a powerful interest in promoting its chosen
platform. But LiMO soldiers on and quietly amasses new members, this
week's latest being haptics technology firm Immersion Technologies.
However, LiMO needs a new route forward, rather than fighting with
Android for phonemakers' affections.
It
has two strategies that could lead to it becoming an underlying
platform for mobile web software in future, rather than a branded OS.
One is to appeal to carriers more than vendors - and the big cellcos
are determined to create a mobile web environment they can define and
control, so LiMO could be useful to them in creating their own-branded,
mass market web apps frameworks. Related to this, LiMO is working
closely with other bodies - operator-driven groups, notably the OMTP
(Open Mobile Terminal Platform), and broader web initiatives. All this
is focused on creating underlying architectures to support web usage
across mobile and other devices, and under the operator's control. So
LiMO and a venture with which it works closely, the Bondi set of
standard web interfaces for mobile programmers, are key to the most
important carrier software initiative out there, JIL (Joint Innovation
Lab), a collaboration by Vodafone, China Mobile, Verizon Wireless and
Softbank, promising developers access to a combined customer base of
close to a billion.
Against this context, LiMO becomes
more interesting, even if its brand may fade. This week saw the OMTP
and Bondi initiatives, heavily supported in the LiMO framework,
becoming a sponsor of the Mobile Web Initiative of the web standards
body, W3C. The sponsorship will drive standards and best practices for
mobile web browsing, said the OMTP, which is spearheaded by Vodafone
(which also plans to offer LiMO devices next year). The group said:
"OMTP believes in a consistent mobile web environment which is enabled
through W3C standardization".
Meanwhile, one of the
important under-the-radar players in the touchscreen revolution,
Immersion, has joined LiMO Foundation, making its TouchSense haptics
technology available to LiMO developers. The TouchSense API will be
made available to the LiMO platform and is free for development
efforts. Device manufacturers may separately license Immersion's haptic
player to deliver effects. Nokia, LG and Samsung use the Immersion
system.
So far LiMO boasts 12 tier one carriers in its
line-up, and 42 commercial devices, with a heavy weighting to China,
Japan and south east Asia so far.
