Lora Bentley spoke with Tom Kelly, CEO, MontaVista .

Bentley: What does Google's new strategy mean for Linux on mobile phones?
Kelly: We see three major probable consequences resulting from Google’s new consortium, the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), and its mobile Linux software stack called Android.

First, Android will provide an entire upper-layer phone stack that is open. Before this, even though MontaVista provided an open mobile operating system, the upper-layer functionality was provided by a variety of closed, proprietary software stacks.

Second, OHA includes major mobile carriers and major handset manufacturers that will allow Android and Android-compatible applications to run on their phones. This means that instead of having to modify mobile applications many times into a different variation for each carrier and each handset, a mobile application developer will be able to write an application once that will run unchanged on many handsets and many carriers.

Third, Google's move into the mobile industry validates the use of Linux as the best operating system for mobile handsets and will expand the market for mobile Linux. For Linux to succeed in the mobile world, we need the participation of the entire mobile ecosystem, including developers, manufacturers and carriers, as part of the Linux community. Google's involvement will help propel participants towards this goal.

Bentley: Why pull together a group rather than work on your own open platform?
Kelly: Even for a company the size of Google, there are too many facets involved in a successful mobile device for one company to do everything — especially when you consider that Google’s goal is global, not just reaching the U.S. and Canada. Google would need to provide the operating system software, development tools, mobile application software, phone handsets, carriers, and so on, all over the world. Google’s goal is to include all aspects of a mobile phone offering, and an alliance is the only way to do that.

Bentley: How do you respond to the view that alliances such as this one are too slow to get things done, that we won't see any phones from it for well over a year?
Kelly: Alliances can be slow. The test in any endeavor, not just alliances such as this, is the execution. But any time you pull together a consortium of companies, execution has got to be the obvious challenge. We believe Google has the resources and the market position to be able to make headway against the difficulties.

OHA has stated that it expects to deploy handsets and services using Android “in the second half of 2008.” That is roughly a year from now. Considering the scope of what OHA aims to accomplish and the complex interrelated technologies needed to realize its success, that timeframe does not seem too sluggish to us.

Bentley: What will having Linux embedded on more mobile phones do for Linux as an OS generally, in terms of market penetration?
Kelly: According to IDC, the number of PCs shipped worldwide last quarter was 66.85 million, but the number of mobile phones shipped was more than 250 million. We expect OHA to increase the demand for mobile Linux. IDG says that Linux is already the second-most-commonly used operating system for mobile devices, behind Symbian, but ahead of Windows. Even so, Android will greatly expand the number of mobile device designers and mobile application developers who turn to Linux instead of the Microsoft Windows Mobile or Symbian operating systems. We expect the quantity of devices running mobile Linux will grow to dwarf the quantity running desktop Linux and enterprise Linux put together. This larger Linux market will only be good for the Linux community.