Trolltech will provide free phones and SDKs (software development kits) to developers willing to target its Qtopia application development framework for mobile phones. The Qtopia Greenphone Grant Program will provide an unspecified number of awardees with Qtopia SDKs, along with Trolltech's open, Linux-based Greenphone target device.

TapRoot Systems is demonstrating its telephony middleware for Linux/Qtopia-based mobile phones at the Linux Mobile Communications Conference this week in Beijing. TapRoot's director of product management, stated, "Development of Linux mobile phones is on the rise and is changing the landscape of the mobile phone industry. Our LinuxTel telephony software is a critical piece."

One of China's largest handset and infrastructure vendors has reportedly adopted a Linux-based mobile phone software stack as part of its standard 3G mobile phone operating system. ZTE will incorporate Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition into its Linux-based "U980" platform for 3G TD-CDMA phones, according to Trolltech.

Trolltech recently released many smartphone developers' dream combination-the Linux-based Greenphone and its open-source Qtopia Phone SDK. Qtopia inherits its API from Trolltech's flagship product Qt, a mature C++ application framework available for Linux/X11, Windows and Mac OS X. Qtopia is specifically enhanced for embedded Linux devices.

"Linux device software stack vendor Trolltech has acquired Fonav, a vendor of unified messaging software. Trolltech plans to use Fonav's "unified live inbox" application software to enhance its Qtopia stacks for mobile phones and VoIP phones, it said."

Interesting things are happening in the world of mobile embedded devices where GNU/Linux was already making significant strides as its being used on such popular mobile devices as is Nokia Nseries.

Azingo, a specialist Mobile Linux outfit which used to go by the name of Celunite, has announced what it claims to be the industry's first Mobile Linux platform based on LiMO Foundation software in the form of a comprehensive suite of open software and services designed to help deliver web 2.0 applications, music and video to a wide range of mobile phones. Azingo Mobile promises to be cheaper and more flexible than existing solutions when it comes to developing, designing and deploying mobile phones.

Openmoko, creator of the first completely open mobile computing platform, today announced agreements with five distributors for the Neo Freerunner Open Source mobile phone. Today, Openmoko will begin shipping the next generation Neo Freerunner to Pulster, Golden Delicious Computers and TRIsoft located in Germany, Bearstech in France and IDA Systems based in India.

A value-added reseller of mobile computers and PDAs has ported Linux to a ruggedized, "military-grade" PDA. SDG Systems is offering the "Nomad" from Tripod Data Systems (TDS) pre-installed with Angstrom Linux and Qtopia PDA Edition, and bundled with a toolsuite and build environment based on OpenEmbedded.