LONDON, TOKYO: LiMo Foundation, the global consortium of mobile leaders delivering a common handset platform based on Linux for the whole mobile industry has announced that it endorses the OMTP BONDI specification and that it expects future LiMo handsets using a web runtime to support the BONDI specification.

When implemented within a mobile device, the BONDI specification allows diverse web applications (widgets) to consistently leverage native functionality on mobile handsets, such as calendar, camera or contact services.

The mobile industry has lacked a common specification that allows for easy re-use and portability of web applications and widgets–often forcing developers to repeatedly re-write their code in order for their program to run on the many different types of mobile handsets. BONDI creates a common interface between these applications and the underlying handset functionality to ensure seamless deployment of innovative web applications. Any web engine or browser can use the BONDI open interfaces, to enable Web 2.0 applications and widgets to easily use the powerful capabilities of today’s mobile devices.

“LiMo is strategically committed to enabling the mobile Internet as a rich experience for mass consumers and helping web developers to fully and broadly realize their ideas within mobile in an efficient way,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation. “We are pleased to endorse the OMTP BONDI specification as part of this strategy and hope to encourage the very large pool of web development talent to bring new and innovative services to LiMo devices.”

“Today’s announcement by LiMo Foundation to support BONDI makes it clear how important it is to bring consistency and security to web applications as they migrate from fixed platforms to mobile devices,” said Tim Raby, managing director of OMTP. “The well defined BONDI interfaces and security model ensure that developers will have the best possible way of addressing their applications to the widest range of devices.”

With BONDI supported in LiMo devices, web developers will be able to write web applications and widgets that run on all handsets that implement the LiMo web runtime.

“Openness and collaboration are two of the guiding principles of LiMo Foundation, and today’s announcement is another example of how leading companies from the mobile industry can work together for the broader benefit of mobile developers and consumers,” said Kiyohito Nagata, senior vice president, NTT DOCOMO and chairperson, LiMo Foundation.