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Over the last couple of years, Palm platform developer PalmSource has been spun off by Palm, Inc., created a no-show version of the Palm OS in Cobalt, and been acquired by Japanese mobile browser and application specialist ACCESS CO.LTD.

It also acquired China Mobile Soft (CMS) and its Linux phone platform, became a founding member of Linux Phone Standards (Lips) to promote Linux on handsets, and committed itself to a Linux version of the Palm OS. The fruit of all those Linux endeavors coalesced at 3GSM today, when PalmSource introduced the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP), a mobile Linux operating system for smartphones and mobile devices.

The nascent mobile Linux market is expected to grow from shipments of 3.5 million in 2005 to 28.1 million by 2010, according to the industry analyst firm Informa.

With ALP and its application framework (codenamed) MAX and upcoming SDK (software developer kit), PalmSource VP of business development Albert Chu told SmartPhoneToday, "Palmsource wants to show we are riding industry momentum, which is mobile Linux." A trend, he added, they saw way ahead of the curve.

So while the market for Linux smartphones is small right now, The Diffusion Group predicts Linux will move ahead of market leader Symbian and be just behind future head Windows Mobile in a couple of years. Chu thinks PalmSource has "an opportunity to be a big fish in a small pond" that is going to grow into a lake, if not an ocean.

Linux ALP
According to Chu, ALP combines ACCESS's and PalmSource's expertise in mobile applications and the Palm OS with a commercial grade Linux kernel and as many open source components as applicable.

There's the standard Linux Kernel (version 2.6.12 & above), an optimized implementation of GTK+ (The GIMP Toolkit) for the creation of graphical user interfaces, GStreamer for streaming media, and the SQLite embedded device database engine. ACCESS and PalmSource say they'll also enhance and certify the open source BlueZ libraries to provide ALP with Bluetooth 2.0 support, for example.

The companies also created components and donated them back to the open source community—Open Binder, for instance; a component object framework, similar in general concept to DCOM and CORBA, but better scaled for use on small devices.

ALP also includes ACCESS's NetFront browser—found in 90 different consumer electronic devices and over 30 handsets—as well as messaging and telephony middleware and mobile applications, including PIMs, multimedia, messaging, HotSync and the Palm Desktop, brought over from the old Palm OS.

While all this is well and good, in essence the Palm OS (Garnet), which licensees like Palm have been heroically modifying for new PDAs and smartphones of old, is dead.

MAX
So while the application framework for ALP, codenamed MAX, preserves the "den of Palm," as Chu says, by enabling all old 68k Palm OS applications to run under emulation mode on ALP devices, software created with the new SDK (software developer kit) - due by the end of the year - won't run on traditional Palm platform devices.

There's support for mobile Java (J2ME), which runs across mobile platforms, and is already compatible with a good portion of the cellular handsets on the market, including Palm-based devices, as well.

Chu expects many of the Palm community's 420,000 registered developers to come along and create applications for ALP—to catch an embryonic mobile Linux wave that is sure to turn tidal.

But couldn’t today’s Palm developers choose to keep creating traditional Palm apps if they’re going to run on ALP devices anyway? Sure the Palm OS is aging, but PalmSource is going to have to give them some real good incentives to move on to ALP Linux, if it wants developers to do so quickly.

MAX enables users to run multiple applications and perform several tasks simultaneously. It supports one- and two-handed user interface schemes, five-way navigation, two dedicated keys, as well as touch-screen and stylus input mechanisms. And since PalmSource is dealing with licensees and carriers, MAX offers partners plenty of customization options.

While ALP is an open source platform, developing for it is closed; just like Windows Mobile, Symbian or the old Palm OS. That means if someone creates software for ALP via the upcoming SDK, then the application won't run on any other mobile Linux platform, such as MontaVista's, without being ported.

Nonetheless, PalmSource asserts the Linux beachhead it is setting up with ALP and MAX will help the wider mobile Linux ecosystem; through its work with developers, carriers, manufacturers, and the open source community as a whole.

The CEO of Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), evangelists for the Linux cause, concurs. Stuart Cohen says, "An offering, such as the ACCESS Linux Platform, that incorporates and supports mobile Linux standards, can only help foster the growth of this market. PalmSource is doing very important work with mobile Linux and its participation in OSDL's Mobile Linux Initiative is a great asset to the marketplace."

PalmSource's Chu told SmartPhoneToday the wireless industry would hear a lot more from PalmSource in 2006 after last year’s period of relative quiet.

Although consumers will have to make do with Palm OS Garnet devices through the rest of 2006—Palm has some Palm-based smartphones, including the rumored Treo 700p, in the works, for example—devices built on PalmSource’s next-gen mobile platform should see the light of day in 2007.