Mozilla Corp., Arm Ltd, MontaVista Software Inc. and four other companies are trying to extend the market for a new category of devices, a combination between a smartphone and a laptop.
The seven
companies are collaborating on an open-source Linux based platform that includes chip design, operating system and several applications. They hope this platform will make the work of hardware developers much easier, when building devices resembling Nokia's N800 web tablet. The device on which the companies are working is smaller than a laptop but bigger than a smartphone, an intermediary between the two. It will not include cellular capabilities, but WiFi.