Report: Linux to capture handset market share

Nearly one-fifth of mid- and high-end handsets will run Linux by 2013, according to a new forecast from ABI Research.
High-profile backers such as Google Inc.(whose Android initiative is based on Linux) and Nokia Corp. (which earlier this year spent $153 million to acquire Trolltech ASA, a Linux developer) will help fuel Linux’s strong growth over the next several years, ABI predicted. Problems such as framework fragmentation and silicon requirements will be addressed, ABI said, giving Linux a chance to be “an important building block in enabling an application domain that embraces Web-based applications and blended Web/native applications.”
“Clever choice of public-license support, along with software engineering that isolates proprietary items from open-source items, allows operating system vendors to generate revenue form a very cost-effective OS solution,” said ABI Research VP Stuart Carlaw. “Linux OS solutions will be far more cost-effective than incumbent solutions, even when silicon requirements are taken into account, given that a fuller application layer will be included in the standard package and that the burden of customization falls mostly on the independent software vendor.”