Openmoko Lets Developers Design Their Own Phones

By DE Editors

Openmoko (Taipei, Taiwan), creator of the first completely open mobile computing platform, expanded the meaning of Open Source by posting the industrial design source files for its Neo-branded mobile phones. Industrial design artists now have the same freedom as software engineers.

Openmoko's source code was freed in February 2007, allowing complete transformation of its mobile phone software. Now, by publishing mechanical CAD files, Openmoko frees industrial designers to fundamentally redesign the Neo-branded mobile phones to fit their vision and market needs.

Openmoko posted the Neo CAD files on its site under a ShareAlike Creative Commons license, establishing a community where designers and developers can share concepts about the next generation of Open Source mobile computing devices. Openmoko encourages developers and designers to build their businesses by leveraging the Openmoko FOSS and CAD resources to speed development of new mobile products.

Because of the overwhelming response by developers and industrial designers to the initial posting of the Neo 1973 CAD files, Openmoko has committed to opening the CAD files for the design of the upcoming Neo Freerunner mobile phone before the phone even hits the market.

The decision to release the files that describe the physical shell of the device was driven by the community of Open Source developers.

For details, visit Openmoko.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.