To support their goal of creating the world's first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone today launched the LiMo Foundation.

A not-for-profit organisation, the LiMo Foundation is aimed at blending the community-based development benefits of transparency, innovation and scalability with the best development practices from the mobile community to create an innovative new business model.

Its activities will be overssen by a board of directors comprising representatives from the founding member companies including foundation chairman, Greg Besio of Motorola and vice chair, Kiyohito Nagata of NTT DoCoMo. The LiMo Foundation will develop a set of APIs, architecture, and contributing source code for the common components of the Linux-based mobile platform.

Details on the LiMo Foundation can be found at http://www.limofoundation.org. The foundation will focus primarily on the joint development of a competitive Linux-based mobile platform, built around a common source code tree that can adapt to ever evolving market requirements around the world. In addition, members will also work on the following.