uebshingo1988

 Of the new phones, the lone model available now in the UnitedStates is the

Motozine ZN5

. Essentially an uber camera/phone, this device uses imagingtechnology from Kodak and has 4 gigabytes of memory for storingphotos. Users slide the lens cover to transform the camera back toa phone.

  The new

FOMA phones

 from NEC and Panasonic are currently only available in Japan,where they run on NTT Docomo's 3G network. These gadgets leverageinternational roaming capabilities, GPS (Global PositioningSystem), mobile TV and full-featured video playback, mobile paymentand advanced mail features.

  LiMo Foundation Executive Director Morgan Gillis said in astatement that smart phones are a sign of things to come.Presumably, he means particularly in the United States. Japanremains the dominant mobile Internet phone consuming country in theworld while Internet-based phone adoption in the United Statesgreatly lags behind countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

  LiMo hopes its open source-based phones will follow the iPhone'spath of success. Google wishes similar success for its Androidmobile OS, though phones based on the complete mobile stack aren'tslated to see daylight until the end of the year--assuming Google'sprogrammers and phone manufacturer partners can make theirdeadlines.

  There has been speculation that Google Android advocates arestruggling with this, but Google has

denied the assertion

  However, the company also

ticked off programmers

 by first offering a new SDK to only 50 leading Android developers,so there are signs the company isn't always on the same page as thepeople building applications for it. This can't be good forplatform development.

  I hope Google's Android development team makes its deadline laterthis year. If not, the rabble will cry for the dissolution of theOpen Handset Alliance, or at least argue for it to be merged withthe new Symbian Foundation or LiMo.

  What will happen to Android then? The work of Google Android leadAndy Rubin and his team may go for naught.

  Concerns over Android aside, ABI Research analyst Stuart Carlawsaid the mobile Internet device market is a ripe green field"in which all mobile operating systems start on the same equalfooting, without the baggage of previous histories such as existedin the smart-phone market."

  For that reason, Carlaw said mobile Linux-based systems could notchunit volumes of 50 million units per year in 2013. He added: