Sean Moss-Pultz is trying to change the mobile phone/device industry this year. He wants consumers to care about what operating system is on their phone as much as they care about what’s on their desktop or laptop computers. OpenMoko and FIC’s Neo1973 smartphone is where that change starts.
The Linux-based mobile platform is completely open source. And unlike Symbian, Microsoft and the large number of other phone operating systems available, OpenMoko gives developers an easy way to create applications and deliver services without the per-handset license fees or headaches of porting to multiple platforms.
Gizmodo has an excellent rundown of what’s coming this year with the platform and the initial launch of the handset. The multi-touch screen phone will be doled out to developers over the next several months and Moss-Pultz said September 2007 is the target time for getting the Neo1973 into consumers’ hands for an unlocked price of $350. Not bad for a GSM phone that is designed to grow as your needs do, instead of having to pay a ton to upgrade to a new handset just to get new features.
The picture of the phone above is just what the model for developers looks like. Moss-Pultz, product manager for OpenMoko, told CrunchGear he’s toying with the idea of putting in a slide-out QWERTY keyboard since he intends for the handset and the OS to be a mobile-computing platform and for the fastest possible text entry a keyboard is the logical option. Gizmodo has several pictures of the device if you want more angles, however, after the jump you’ll see shots of the OS itself so you can get an idea of what’s coming.