LONDON and TOKYO, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- LiMo Platform and APIs Open Market Access for Technology Vendors and
Application Developers

LiMo Foundation(TM), a global consortium of mobile leaders delivering an open
handset platform for the whole industry, today announced the on-schedule
availability in March 2008 of the first release of the LiMo Platform-the
first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile
handsets-together with the immediate public availability of the application
programming interface (API) specifications.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080204/CLM031LOGO )

LiMo's technology will be showcased in Booth 8b135, Hall 8 at Mobile
World Congress (www.mobileworldcongress.com), February 11-14 in Barcelona.

"The LiMo Platform is being readied by mobile leaders working in unison
to deliver an open handset platform for use by the whole industry," said
Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation. "The first release
of the LiMo Platform combines technologies already extensively market proven
within an array of leading handsets. This will enable initial LiMo handsets
to register in the marketplace far more rapidly than handsets based on
unproven technology. In addition, we are now making the platform APIs freely
available to the public in order to begin the widespread engagement of
developer talent and innovation that will shape the new mobile consumer
experiences of tomorrow."

LiMo's initial Founder members -- Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic
Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone -- collaborated on
Release 1 (R1), and nearly all of the enabling technology within R1 has been
commercially deployed and proven within handsets enjoyed by consumers today.

"We are very proud of the transparent, balanced and harmonious
contribution process that led to the on-schedule rollout of R1 of the LiMo
platform and our API specifications. This unique process -- with its shared
leadership and decision-making -- has delivered the benefits of both
community-based and proprietary development," said Kiyohito Nagata of NTT
DoCoMo, chairperson of LiMo Foundation. "The evolution of the platform is an
ongoing process. We are delighted with the wide range companies contributing
to that process as we now work on Release 2."

The LiMo Platform-leveraging standards and open-source projects -- is a
modular, plug-in-based, hardware-independent architecture built around an
open operating system, with a secure run-time environment for support of
downloaded applications. Linux was selected as the core technology for the
LiMo Platform for its acceptability by the whole mobile industry, its rich
functionality and scalability, its record of success in embedded systems and
mobile phones and its potential to easily "cross-platformize" with other
product categories.

"With LiMo announcing the first release of the platform that is common
across many handset vendors and models, the stage is set for mobile
innovation on Linux," said Guido Arnone, Director of Terminals Technology,
Vodafone, and vice chairperson of LiMo Foundation. "The LiMo Platform enables
operators and handset makers to assign greater investment to technologies
that improve the consumer experience and technology vendors and ISVs to
target their products for a software platform that is being broadly adopted
by the whole industry."

Third-party developers will use LiMo's API specifications -- available in
beta form immediately at www.limofoundation.org -- to build new applications
that deliver next-generation consumer experiences across a tremendous, stable
base of globally deployed mobile devices. Middleware components for the LiMo
Platform can be implemented in either C or C++ programming languages.

Launched in January 2007, the LiMo Foundation is open to all vendors and
service providers in the mobile communications marketplace, including device
manufacturers, operators, chipset manufacturers, independent software
vendors, integrators and third-party developers.

About LiMo Foundation(TM)

LiMo Foundation is a dedicated consortium of mobile industry leaders
working together within an open and transparent governance model -- with
shared leadership and shared decision making -- to deliver an open and
globally consistent handset software platform based upon Mobile Linux for use
by the whole mobile industry. A full description of the foundation, including
the vision, goals, charter and membership information, can be found at
www.limofoundation.org.

Web site: http://www.limofoundation.org
              http://www.mobileworldcongress.com