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The bright green smartphone Trolltech introduced last month to encourage software developers to create, test and modify applications for its Qtopia Linux mobile OS is now available. Qtopia has already shipped on 4 million cell phones worldwide, including those from Motorola.

Greenphone, the name of the handset, arrives with a software development kit (SDK) and a suite of programming tools. The purpose is to give developers an actual smartphone to test and develop applications on, rather than having them use an emulator, as is usually done.

Trolltech says this would end up being more accurate – giving developers more of a what you see is what you get experience - and could lead to a higher degree of customization than previously seen for carriers.

Greenphone SDKs are available in three flavors - Professional, Light and Community - ranging in price from $695 for the first two to $890 for the latter. Details on the differences between each can be found here.

Trolltech co-CEO Haavard Nord says, "The announcement of Greenphone has been met with significant notice and acceptance. We believe the innovation and creativity we will see as a result will dramatically accelerate the adoption of Linux in mobile phones."

Unfortunately for those outside the Linux developer community the chances of getting their hands on a Greenphone are severely limited, if impossible: Although, if you do, you should be able to pop your SIM cards into the unlocked GSM/GPRS smartphone to call and data away.

Greenphone runs on Qtopia Phone Edition 4.1.4 on top of Linux Kernal 2.4.19, a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor, 64 MB of RAM and 128 of ROM. It has a 240 x 320 (QVGA) touch display, miniSD slot, Bluetooth, and a minUSB port. There's also desktop sync software.

Trolltech gives developers the freedom to customize and extend or even re-flash and replace Greenphone's onboard firmware, as well as install software updates and new components from the Qtopia community Web site.