LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Canonical today announces the formation of a Carrier Advisory Group (CAG) that will shape Ubuntu for the mobile industry. Founding members of the CAG are Deutsche Telekom, Everything Everywhere, Korea Telecom, Telecom Italia, LG UPlus, Portugal Telecom, SK Telecom and the leading Spanish international carrier. Only CAG members will have access to early information about Ubuntu and device manufacturer plans to support the OS, as well as the opportunity to be a launch partner for Ubuntu on smartphones.
The CAG is independently chaired by David Wood who has 25 years’ experience in the mobile industry. He is currently Chair at London Futurists and has served on the board of directors of Symbian and the Open Mobile Alliance. Wood commented: “The mobile industry remains on the lookout for an independent platform that enables innovation and differentiation. Ubuntu brings a time-tested operating system and an attractive user experience, as well as a community of developers ready to apply enterprise-grade skills in the creation of applications. The Carrier Advisory Group will have ample opportunity to influence the Ubuntu roadmap, and take full advantage of the potential in this emerging platform."
The CAG will hold regular meetings to map out key areas of the Ubuntu mobile platform and discuss its developments. Topics for discussion will include:
- Differentiation for OEMs and operators
- Developer ecosystems and application portability from Android and Blackberry
- HTML5 standards, performance and compatibility
- Marketplaces for apps, content and services
- Revenue share models for publishers, operators and OEMs
- Payment mechanisms and standards
- Platform fragmentation
- Consumer and enterprise market segments and positioning
Ubuntu’s extensive developer community has grown significantly since the launch of Ubuntu on mobile and the OS is already being widely tested by developers on a variety of existing devices. “Leading ISVs are committing to support Ubuntu at launch, to take advantage of a highly energised and vocal base of developers and early adopters and to reach new markets,” said Cristian Parrino, VP Mobile and Online Services at Canonical.
“The CAG is an important partnership between Canonical and the mobile industry,” said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical. “While Ubuntu has gained tremendous traction in both cloud and PC environments, we recognise the complex dynamics of the mobile market and so the CAG allows us to draw on the insights and support of such a thoughtful and experienced group of industry partners. We aim to deliver a platform that delights everyone who touches it and meets industry requirements of quality, security, manageability and differentiation.”
Invitations are extended to any national or multinational carrier who wishes to join the CAG. The group will close to new members at the end of July. For more information about CAG membership, contact: https://pages.canonical.com/carrier-advisory-group-contact-us.html, or visit: www.ubuntu.com/phone/carrier-advisory-group.
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About Canonical and Ubuntu
Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu and the leading provider of services for Ubuntu deployments in the enterprise. With global teams of developers, support staff and engineering centres, Canonical is uniquely positioned to help partners and customers make the most of Ubuntu. It also operates Ubuntu One, a cross-platform personal cloud service for consumers. Canonical is a privately held company.
Ubuntu is a free, open-source platform for client, server and cloud computing. It is the most widely used Linux on the top 1000 websites by traffic, the reference platform for OpenStack deployments, the most popular guest OS on public clouds, and ships on PCs from Dell, Lenovo, HP and other brands. Ubuntu for smartphones uses all four edges of the screen for a more immersive experience. Ubuntu uniquely gives handset OEMs and mobile operators the ability to converge phone, PC and thin client into a single enterprise superphone.