Verizon joins LiMo's board, bad news for Android?

Last week Verizon Wireless joined the board of the LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation, a group with the purpose of standardizing the Linux operating system for use on mobile devices. So far, LiMo has not been very organized, and we have not seen much in terms of material progress come from the group. But now that Verizon has joined, they are saying that we’ll see LiMo based devices in Verizon’s shops in 2009.

So what does that mean for Android, LiMo’s rival Linux based mobile OS? Well, according to a piece published by Laptop Mag, it doesn’t mean much either way.

From the Laptop Magazine piece:

Here’s what Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon Wireless, had to say about Android. “If you look at LiMo’s membership, it consists of diverse set of experts from the carrier community, to developers, to handset manufacturers. LiMo is already in the marketplace with commercial products, and it’s already building on a platform and extending it. If [Google Android] handsets show up, we’ll look at those as well,” he said. “We are not adopting the Linux operating system to exclusion of other operating systems,” Malady said, while explaining that LiMo will be Verizon Wireless’ “preferred operating system.”

So what does that mean? Basically, Verizon will let people use Android phones on its network, and if there is a really huge demand, it might eventually offer some Android handsets of its own directly to consumers.

Not exactly anything all that new, in the end. But either way, Verizon warming up to Open Source can only be good for the community as a whole, even if it isn’t our preferred flavor of Open Source.

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