At the Open Source in Mobile conference, today Sean finally announced OpenMoko. He was the "mystery speaker" at the conference. Slashdot picked up the news, which usually means it is big.
IT IS BIG.
It is a truly mobile open source phone, from the bottom up. As you can see from the press release, Funambol happens to be the thing powering the top of the stack, push email and PIM for starters, so I am superexcited.
We are not talking about an academic effort here. We are talking about the largest ODM on the planet (FIC, the Taiwanese company that makes the phone, a sister company of HTC) putting its weight behind a mobile open source phone. They can crank up millions of phones... And the largest open source community in mobile (that's us ;-) is already on it. I am expecting our developers to start building any sort of app on that phone, from enterprise verticals to consumer stuff. Super super super cool.
As the Inquirer wrote:
"This is the first phone in a long time to get us really interested in what it is, what it isn't, and the philosophy behind it. The philosophy is the thing that makes Linux great... it is really open."
The world is changing... Mobile Open Source is the way to go. Join the revolution.
