Mobile Linux is the hip thing to talk about this year — Motorola is making a big push, Garnett & Helfrich Capital is buying into the market, and Greenphone is trying for world domination. Now another startup that sells into the mobile Linux market, MontaVista Software, announced this week that the company has raised a sizable round of funding.
Santa Clara-based MontaVista says they’ve raised $21 million in funding led by Siemens Venture Capital, with other investors NEC, Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, and Aplix. The latest funding puts their total funds raised higher than $90 million, says Red Herring. MontaVista sells Linux-based operating systems and development tools for cell phones and mobile devices, as well as telecom infrastructure.
Using Linux for mobile phones and devices is a growing trend as handset makers like Motorola look for options outside of Symbian and Microsoft. Motorola says it can also use Linux to bring down development costs, shorten time to market, and tap the innovation of those savvy Linux developers.
3 comments so far
11:46 AM PT
I really hope that this catches on because the ability for users to do what they want with their phones is HUGE. I think the market for homemade applications is just waiting to explode. That is also a lot of funding. Good article,
Ryan
1:47 PM PT
I think the only thing really standing in the way of Linux on the phone is carriers. Do they really want users to have a device that is so easily customizable without the carrier being the middle man?
10:11 PM PT
What a dumb idea! Provide people to tinker around with their mobile phone and then a million call a second to the cell providers. If people think that just becuase Linux is free it is simple and everything can be done on it with simplcity then they are in for a rude awakening.
This will create avenues of detruction that will create turmoil in this segment. Trust me! I am working on Linux for almost a decade now.
SG
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