Lest we forget, Google and the OHA is not the first player to step into the mobile Linux arena.  The LiMo Foundation - whose membership includes some overlap with the OHA - has been developing the open-source OS for mobile use, and Technology News spoke to Executive Director Morgan Gillis about the potential for change now that Google has set its sights on cellphones.  Predictably upbeat, Gillis reckons LiMo and Android have more to gain from cooperation than competition, and that even if dominance was on the agenda they’re targeting different areas:

“[W]hile Google’s focus is on consumers and the user experience, LiMo’s focus is on the middleware — the layer of technology that sits beneath the user experience layer. LiMo is really catalyzing next-generation user experiences on mobile Linux from whomever they may originate.  So there is a very elegant dovetailing between Google and LiMo in terms of our respective areas of focus” Morgan Gillis, LiMo Foundation

For all the enthusiasm, though, Gillis seems resigned to Google’s potential dominance in the sector.  Predicting “substantial changes”, while he’s cautious about the budding, delicate relationship between Android’s backers and the networks, he nonetheless credits the company with significant power:

“Google has a great capacity to do that, and to raise the bar in the user experience. So parties within the industry now have a choice: Work with Google, or think very seriously about how to achieve the next-generation mobile Internet experience for their customers on their own” Morgan Gillis, LiMo Foundation 

And of the search giant’s overtures toward the FCC and stated consideration to buy the 700MHz spectrum when it goes up for auction next January?  Gillis flies in the face of many analysts with his opinion: 

“I don’t think they will buy spectrum - this is more about FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) than anything else. If they were to do so, they would place themselves in a position of direct competition with other operators, with which it needs to work collaboratively. It would make the challenge harder, not easier” Morgan Gillis, LiMo Foundation

Considering the latest developments in Android, he may have a point.  As we suggested back at the beginning of October, Google’s strategy could have already paid off: not ownership of the band, but forcing the FCC to implement open-access provisions that would give it serious opportunity to supply gPhones based on the Android platform and partially circumnavigate the traditional carriers.