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French mobile Linux gets funded

Categories: Announcements, Linux
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 1:05 AM

We usually restrain from writing about “capital raising” news and issues, but this one really caught our eyes. French mobile Linux developer Purple Labs raised $14.5 million in their first round from Sofinnova Partners, which led the round, and investors Earlybird and Partners Group.

Purple LabsThe strange thing about this is that while we know Linux on mobile phones is the future, the question is do we actually need one more flavor/version of it. There are already few mobile Linux distributions on the market and some others will come in the (very) near future. Guess Purple Labs and its investor things there’s still room for one more player…

What differentiate Purple Labs from the other mobile Linux developers, is that apparently their solution is among the first ones with approval from European carriers. In addition, it’s also interesting to note that they primarily plan to push their platform to be used in the lower-end feature phones to reach wider market — and make more money I might add. Guess French Alcatel and/or Sagem could jump-in and finally release a decent smartphone. We’ll see…

[Via: RedHerring]

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About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.