As the battle over mobile operating systems heats up, competitors to Google's Android platform are beginning to get a little tired of Android proponents' marketing tactics. Executives from the Symbian Foundation and the LiMo Foundation both told Forbes Google's Android platform is over-hyped. In fact, Lee Williams, president of the Symbian Foundation, maintains that Symbian is more open and democratic than Android.
Nevertheless, a number of handset makers--most notably No. 2 global handset maker Samsung--appear to remain committed to Android, and many have promised to launch Android-based devices in the coming months. So far, though, the only major Android-based device commercially available is the T-Mobile USA G1, made by HTC. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, Android phones were noticeably absent from the show; many industry watchers had anticipated Android news to dominate the conference.
LiMo, meanwhile, announced in February that six of its partners will be offering new LiMo handsets in 2009. Those partners include Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone, NTT DoCoMo, SK Telecom and Verizon Wireless. The foundation also said LiMo will be in non-phone devices such as netbooks.
Separately, Symbian plans to release its open-source mobile platform later this year and will announce 10 to 15 new members in the coming weeks. The Foundation already has 81 members.
For more:
- see this Forbes article
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