The next web is mobile, that’s for sure. For some, it already is the recent web, especially those who walk around with the nifty little tool called the iPhone. Which basically is a mini computer with a phone function. Problem with the shiny object though, is that it’s one of the most locked-in devices we’ve seen in the last years. Open alternatives are on its way, of which the Android platform is probably the most famous one. Android is based on Linux, the OS that lays the foundation for open mobile platforms.
Intel probably acknowledges this, based on their acquisition of London-based Opened Hand, a company which specializes in mobile Linux development and services. Cnet reports that the chip company will ask these British Linux mobile experts to focus on the Mobil Software Platform community, “an open source community for sharing software technologies, ideas, projects, code, and applications to create an untethered computing experience across Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), Netbooks, and embedded devices”. The first devices have found their way to the market earlier this summer.
In short, they’re laying the foundation for the next, mobile, open and thus more exciting web. Developers will have all the freedom to build the mobile devices and software, not limited by a mighty company.
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