Mobile bigwigs come together for Linux project

Despite the believe-it-or-not quality of the announcement, representatives of all companies insist that it’s true. That’s right: A consortium of the most powerful players in the mobile phone industry have come together to make a global Linux-based platform.

The usual suspects include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone. They will all contribute to the platform, which will be open source.

And despite what might seem contrary to the bottom line, the companies insist that they hope to deliver lower prices. Consistency of standards is an overarching goal as well. Linux is the basis for a handful of mobile devices now, but this effort is aimed at standardizing the manufacturing of such devices.