22 May 2008

Nokia itself has no plans to use Linux
as a platform for its mobile phones!

Nokia these speculations and claims that they definitely have no plans to use Linux as a platform for mobile phones!

The Finnish mobile phone giant insists that comments reported by Reuters and others were quoted out of context and that nothing has changed.

As I have reported yesterday, the speculation started when comments from Rick Simonson, Nokia's Financial Director, that the mobile phone giant was "well on the way" towards using Linux on mobile phones.

The confusion mainly comes from the definition of a mobile phone and fact that Nokia already uses Linux on its internet tablet class of devices, exemplified by the Nokia N810, and is planning to expand that class into more feature-rich devices.

The N810 already features VoIP, including a Skype client, but so far those have only been usable when logged on to a Wi-Fi hotspot. But in the US Nokia has announced and demonstrated a version of the N810 with WiMAX support, which will give it the always-on connectivity that traditionally defines a mobile phone.

So here is a handset, from Nokia, which can make and receive calls as long as it remains within a WiMAX network which is intended to be ubiquitous, eventually. So can one say Nokia are planning to release mobile phones based on Linux?