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Why DoCoMo endorsement of Linux is a big deal
Monday December 08, 2003 - [ 12:00 PM GMT ]
Topics: Devices , Mobile Computing
By: Chris Preimesberger
At first glance, the news item earlier this week didn't look that significant: NTT DoCoMo, the huge Japanese telecom, announced it will urge its handset suppliers to build Linux-based phones. So? Lots of companies urge other companies to do things every day. Big deal.


That's exactly what it is. A big deal. We're about to watch the famous trickle-down theory start to work wonders for Linux mobile development.

Let me tell you a story. There are clear parallels here.

Thursday morning I attended a briefing at IBM's Partnership Solutions Center in San Mateo, Calif. I listened as a start-up called Evant, Inc. gave an update: A scant one year ago, it was

a 12-person operation in a little office in San Francisco. Managers had a good software product (a browser-based retail merchandise reporting application), some faithful investors, and lots of hope. But they were about to run out of money, and things looked grim indeed. They needed just one big retail client to put them over the top, and they had a big fish on the hook in Staples, Inc. But they couldn't land it by themselves, because they were not an established entity. Evant was on track to become yet another high-tech VC casualty.

However, Evant found the right ally at exactly the right time in IBM. They had their software tested and certified on the IBM stack, and key decision-makers at Big Blue took note. IBM wanted to land Staples, too (an $11 billion, multinational corporation), so partners they became. They signed the deal. Twelve months later, the software works, and everybody is happy.

Largely because of one key partnership with the proverbial 800-pound gorilla, Evant has leveraged that first account and added 50 other clients, such as McKesson, Napa Auto Parts, United Stationers, and Camping World. It also had added 148 more employees. With vision, a quality product, and political tenacity, Evant is now well on its way to becoming a leader in its very niched field.

Linux is no startup, but its mobile version certainly is. Since IBM, Oracle, Sun, and others mainstreamed Linux for server-side and desktop applications in the last three years, the system has rocketed to prominence and will only keep growing.

Now it's Linux Jr.'s turn to rock and rule.

NTT DoCoMo is more than an 800-pound gorilla; it is every bit as powerful in the Far East as IBM is everywhere. DoCoMo wants Linux as a cost-saving measure for its 2004 line-up, and what DoCoMo wants, DoCoMo gets. Linux will help its handset suppliers -- Panasonic, Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC -- seriously drive down the price of some of the phones they manufacture. Once those big guys start building Linux phones, the rush will be on.

The world's leading handset maker, Finland's Nokia, started the mobile Linux ball rolling last January when it released the first mobile Linux SDK. In February, Motorola followed suit by announcing plans to eventually run Linux on most of its phones, then introduced its first Linux phone, the A760, in August.

IDC Research estimates that Linux -- whose mobile market share is virtually zero at the moment -- may own as much as 4.2 per cent of the market for high-powered smart phones in only two years. That share could reach 10 percent by 2007.

IT companies, including NTT DoCoMo and others in the Far East, are dominoes. If they're all standing up together and doing business side-by-side, they're all in close proximity. When one makes a move, others are sure to follow. It just takes that first big one to take the jump.

And DoCoMo is the first big one. The dominoes will be falling soon. Investors, take note.