To support their goal of creating the world's first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone announced today the official launch of the LiMo Foundation.

A not-for-profit organization, the LiMo Foundation is aimed at blending the community-based development benefits of transparency, innovation and scalability with the best development practices from the mobile community to create an innovative new business model. The LiMo Foundation will be seeking new members interested in participating in the development of a set of APIs, architecture, and contributing source code for the common components of the Linux based mobile platform.

The LiMo Foundation, through a fair and balanced contribution and participation process, will focus primarily on the joint development of a competitive Linux-based mobile platform, built around a common source code tree that can adapt to ever evolving market requirements around the world. In addition, members will also work on the following:

• Establishment of safeguards to minimize fragmentation;
• Collaboration on a mobile Linux developer ecosystem;
• Co-operation with existing industry organizations
• Securing new members from across the industry: device manufacturers, operators, chip set manufacturers, independent software vendors, integrators and third party developers