ACCESS Finds Friend for Smartphone Platform in NTT DoCoMo

ACCESS and NTT DoCoMo are working with a company called ESTEEMO, which is owned by Panasonic and NEC, to develop the ALP-run smartphones and get them into the hands of consumers.

According to ACCESS, it intends to use MOAP (Mobile Oriented Application Platform based on Linux)—the FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access) platform used by NTT DoCoMo for its 3G services—for the project, which will also lead to the development of a shared software platform that conforms to the specifications of the LiMo Foundation. The intention of LiMo is to promote the use of Linux in the mobile industry.

By the way, NTT DoCoMo, NEC and Panasonic—three of the five companies to sign onto the memorandum of understanding announced today—are LiMo founding members.

"The conclusion of this memorandum will substantially expedite the development of a shared platform based on LiMo Foundation specifications, as well as promote consideration of an operator pack by the five participating companies," according to NTT DoCoMo senior vice president Kiyohito Nagata. "In this way, the memorandum will contribute to the dissemination and growth of the Linux platform and the creation of an associated ecosystem. We expect it to enable the development of products that are even more attractive to NTT DoCoMo."

ACCESS confidently says it intends to begin marketing the commercial products resulting from these efforts during fiscal 2009.

Today’s announcement is an important step forward for ALP, one of two Linux-based follow ups to the Palm operating system (OS) in the works. If all goes well, then NTT DoCoMo could become the first major carrier to lisence ALP, which could lead others to follow suit.

While ACCESS's platform, which went under the name Palm OS for Linux until ACCESS acquired PalmSource in 2005, has made slow but steady progress since the mobile platform's introduction almost two years ago, the other OS, being developed by PalmSource's former parent company Palm, Inc., has been delayed.

Today, the Palm is ACCESS's largest licensee, as ACCESS still manages the Palm OS, which it now simply calls Garnet. Palm not choosing ALP for future products appeared to be a significant blow to ACCESS’s plans. It seems now that Palm may need ACCESS more than it needs them.

When we first heard about the delay of Palm's Linux platform, we suggested the company consider going with ALP instead. That way Palm would be able to ditch the aging Palm OS and release smartphones built on a modern mobile platform (other than Windows Mobile, which it also supports) sooner rather than later.

If Palm waits too long, it may be too late for the struggling PDA and smartphone pioneer to continue to succeed in a quickly changing and increasingly challenging (iPhone anyone?) market.

Both ALP and Palm's Linux platforms support the tens of thousands of Palm OS applications already on the market.

Today, ACCESS's bread and butter is its NetFront Web browser, which is used in all sorts of devices, ranging from smartphones to set-top boxes. The company told SmartPhoneToday earlier this year, it would like to see ALP reach a wide range of products as well—from the lowliest feature phone to the highest-end smartphone.

NTT DoCoMo isn't the first carrier to give ALP a (at least tentative) thumbs up. Orange has said it would standardize its mobile handsets on Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux, of the ALP variety.

ACCESS and Orange are working together to develop an Orange Application Package for ALP-based mobile phones. The aim of this package, which will run on top of ALP, is to enable device vendors to quickly develop ALP-based Orange Signature Devices.