Mobile Phones powered by open-source

BANGALORE, INDIA: We have heard of mobile phones running on the Android operating system, the Samsung Bada Operating system and even on the Microsoft Windows platform. But did you know that there are mobile phones that run on various open-source platforms as well?

These mobile phones are a boon to the software development community which can work efficiently on the open source platform and can create various new mobile applications that have the potential of changing the world for the better.

In sync with this, we provide a list of mobile phones that run on various open-source platforms. Here goes the list:

1. Nokia N900: This smartphone was released in 2009 and runs on the Maemo 5 open-source operating system. The smartphone even incorporates the QWERTY keyboard for efficient navigation and usage.

2. OpenMoko Neo 1973: This football shaped phone makes use of the Openmoko Linux and the Qtopia platforms which are both Linux based. The mobile phone was released in 2007 and continued to sell in the markets for some time before being phased out altogether.

3. Nokia N950 developers edition: It runs on the MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan mobile platform and is available to software developers only. The Nokia N950 was released in 2011.

4. Aava: The MeeGo operating system running smartphone is currently available to software developers only. It was released in 2011. One notable aspect here is that it contains open hardware as well.

5. Golden Delicious GTA04: Runs on the GTA04 Kernel. The GTA04 is built to facilitate exchange for the GTA02 board in the Neo FreeRunner housing. This phone will be released probably in the second quarter of this year and will include Open hardware as well.