Aava Mobile Places Its Bets On Open Device Platform
Company:
Headquarters: Oulu, Finland
Technology Sector: Hardware
Key Product: Reference design for smartphones and tablets
Year Founded: 2009
Number of Channel Partners: Currently showing a reference design for smartphones and tablets
Ideal Channel Partner: Volume Oriented Reseller Partner
Why You Should Care: Aava Mobile's open source mobile platform spans both software and hardware, giving OEMs and carriers more flexibility.
The Lowdown: In the mobile industry, everyone wants to differentiate their offerings from those of competitors. But while open source software has made its way into the mobile market, hardware has generally been closed, and that has been a barrier to OEMs and carriers bringing unique devices to market.
Finland-based Aava Mobile is shaking things up by providing an open platform for mobile devices that encompasses both software and hardware. The startup has developed a reference design for smartphones and tablets that features a 3.8 inch, 864-by-480 display with capacitive touch, haptic feedback, GPS, high-definition videoconferencing and a 5-megapixel camera.
Aava Mobile's platform is based on Intel's forthcoming Atom-based Moorestown processor and is designed to support Android, Moblin 2.1, and Intel and Nokia's recently unveiled MeeGo, according to Piotr Frasunkiewicz, head of marketing for Aava Mobile.
It's been a busy year so far for Aava Mobile: Intel CEO Paul Otellini mentioned the company's reference design in his keynote at CES 2010, and Aava Mobile also garnered attention at the Mobile World Congress last month. But Aava isn't looking to establish itself as a new entrant to the mobile industry competition, preferring instead to work within its 'channel' of OEMs and carriers.
"We're not another branch of mobile phones, just a technology provider," says Frasunkiewicz. "We're not bringing a new brand to market, or a product."
Aava's core team consists of engineers from Nokia and Microcell who've been working together for the better part of a decade. During that time, the Aava team came to realize that open source offers the best path to a future in which x86-based smartphones will account for a dominant share of the mobile device market, says Frasunkiewicz.
"The open OS is also the future of the mobile industry. Google brought proof of that," Frasunkiewicz says. "We believe that x86 architecture having great support from developers will be important for the mobile phone market."