Trolltech Hints At Geographic Expansion, Windows Sync, For Linux Smartphones

By Jacqueline Emigh
Linux Today Writer

Trolltech, maker of the embedded Linux development environment
in Motorola’s new A760 smartphone, is now talking with mobile
operators in North America and Europe to spur Linux cell phone
implementations beyond China, Korea, and Japan.

Motorola’s phone, which entered volume shipment today to Asia,
already supports direct synchronization of contact information with
PCs running KDE and some other Linux desktops.

David Kipping, Trolltech’s director of business development,
predicts implementations of Linux smartphones in North America
starting in 2004. “We know this from development activities that
are already under way,” Kipping said, in an interview with Linux
Planet.

Trolltech’s Qt/Embedded embedded application development
framework is also being used in already released Linux editions of
Sharp’s Zaurus PDA, as well in a Linux smartphone due out from
FoxCon in the first quarter of next year. Other manufacturers that
have announced upcoming Linux smartphones include Samsung, NEC, and
an Asian company called CECT.

About a year ago, Trolltech began to “refocus” the activities of
its embedded development group toward smart phones, Kipping
recalled. “We realized that the PDA market wasn’t going to grow to
any size similar, and that most of the innovation would take place
on the smart phone side,” he maintained.

“We think the smartphone market is going to ultimately boil down
to two players–Microsoft and Linux–although other makers of
embedded environments, such as Qualcomm and Symbian, would probably
disagree.”

In making its pitch to mobile operators and cell phone makers
around the world, Trolltech is stressing the “customizability” of
Linux, as opposed to Windows. “Operators can tailor how the phone
looks and feels,” Kippin contended.

Features of Motorola’s new mobile phone include a digital
camera, video player, MP3 player, speaker phone, and Bluetooth, for
instance.

Straight out of the box, Motorola’s new phone can synchronize
directly with KDE and other Linux desktops that use the same
graphical underpinnings as Trolltech’s Qtopia Desktop software,
according to Kipping. However, Trolltech’s Qtopia Desktop software
also supports data export to applications operating in other
desktop environments, including Gnome. Applications written in
Qt/Embedded can also run on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh, without
recompiling, he said.

Down the road, Kipping forsees direct synchronization with
applications running in multiple operating environments via SyncML,
an emerging standard now under development by IBM and other
vendors.

“We are seeing demand for Linux smartphones among Global 500
companies,” he noted. “The embedded market, however, is still only
a small portion of our market. We’re still primarily a desktop
software company.”

“If a capability was available that let me easily synchronize my
contacts back and forth between a cell phone and a Linux desktop, I
would definitely use it,” commented Russell Johnson, a Web software
developer and Red Hat/KDE user at National Background Data
(NBD).

Johnson added that he previously bought a Linux-based Zaurus
PDA, but rarely used the machine. “The Zaurus was more of a novelty
device, though. Plus, the synchronization was really a pain back
then, a year ago. I understand that it’s gotten much better
now.”

Contended Randy Lastinger, NBD’s director of network operations:
“I’d like to see Linux integrate across smartphones and the desktop
the way Microsoft does. That way, Linux would become better known,
and people would feel much better using it.

According to Heather Stern, a principal at Starshine.org, the
once intensive religious wars between KDE and Gnome are now
starting to settle down, as these two major Linux operating
environments start to become more alike “under the hood.”