The Qtopia Greenphone. The redoubtable Trolltech Linux geeks have just announced the Greenphone development handset to let Linux mobile phone developers test out their cool applications on a real live product instead of relying on simulators. It’s a full blown GSM/GPRS handset with 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, touch screen and SD Card slot and it ships with the full Linux Qtopia application development SDK. This has got to be A.Good.Thing. Actually according to this ‘ere press release Linux powered mobile devices have now overtaken Microsoft, RIM and Palm by grabbing a 22% share of the smartphone market, second only to Symbian. Now ain’t that an interesting little factoid?
Greenphone will be offered as part of a complete software development kit (SDK) and includes Trolltech’s Qtopia Phone Edition, a comprehensive application platform and user interface for Linux-based mobile phone. Although not intended as a commercial mobile phone, Greenphone has many of the communication functions and features found in today’s sophisticated smartphones. Developers can exploit these features and functions in developing their own unique applications.
