Overshadowed by Google’s partner-packed Android launch, LiPS (the Linux Phone Standards Forum) has nonetheless pushed ahead with phase two of their mobile Linux specification, released to developers this week.  Differentiating themselves from the work of the Open Handset Alliance by defining their project as broad standards for any Linux-based cellphone, as opposed to Android’s specific implementation, the guidelines set out a number of key telephony, UI, messaging and presence functions that would allow developers to produce applications compatible with any smartphone that adhered to the LiPS criteria.

“The basic notion of what OHA and Android put forth is an implementation of a phone stack that is Java-based and a given implementation.  If that implementation is broadly accepted and devices are built on it, it could constitute a de facto standard. Our approach is a traditional one of standardization” Bill Weinberg, General Manager, LiPS

Like Android, which has suggested “sometime 2008″ for the first release of handsets, LiPS has been cagey about when commercially available models that adhere to the specification will be launched; a revision to the criteria based on real-world feedback is expected within six months, which would make for a relatively immediate timescale depending on how much feedback they expect to receive.

“[LiPS and Android] aren’t competitive outright, they’re just different approaches to the same problem” Bill Weinberg

Unlike other major players in the cellphone industry, Weinberg hasn’t taken the opportunity to shoot down his rival; instead, he sees their coexistence merely as a number of attempts to harmonise a perhaps fragmented market.  Nonetheless, he is conscious that developer time, energy and impetus is the resource in shortest supply; the unspoken fear is that, should Google sway enough manufacturers and third-party developers into concentrating on the Android platform, the broader LiPS specification will become irrelevant.