There's a new class of mobile devices out there - not laptops or cell phones, but a little bit of both. Think iPhone with more computing power and a larger screen and real keyboard, and you've got the idea. They're called Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and they are part of an Ultra-Mobile PC initiative pushed by Intel.

We've seen such devices for some time now, starting with the early PDAs such as Apple's ill-fated Newton. Recently we've seen more capable devices based on Linux including Nokia's 770 and more recent N800 (both based on Debian and using ARM instead of Intel chips). Nokia, slow to embrace open source because of their commitment to Symbian, have started an open source mobile community. They're saying the right things but it's too much to expect them to embrace Linux over Symbian.

Intel is hoping to create a whole new class of device using the MID standard. Powered by Linux, they aim to be ultra low-powered with battery charges lasting 24 hours or more, and with the usefulness of a PC. They demonstrated an iPhone like device last year, and companies are actively using the new standard to create new devices. This is Intel's chance to make some significant inroads in the mobile market. A move to handsets and lower-end devices is probably in the works.

Long viewed as just another mobile OS, Linux is being embraced by leading devices like the iPhone and the upcoming Google phone as well as the MID devices. It's looking like there's room for perhaps 3-4 significant mobile OSs: Symbian, Linux Mobile Windows, and perhaps an upstart. The opening up of phone APIs embraced by Google and Apple will only accelerate the move to open systems, resulting in lots of commercial as well as open source apps. Nokia would be will advised to make its Symbian mobile development easier and more open source friendly, and in a hurry.

To me, things will get really interesting when Linux is scaled down to work on cheaper handsets. That would really open up the market for mobile device applications, but the proprietary OSs will be with us for awhile until the low end devices get more CPU and memory without driving up the price.

¶ 7:10 AM