Open Source takes off on mobile platforms

Black Duck Software has seen a dramatic increase in the number of open source projects that target mobile platforms. A report from the open source monitoring company analysed data it gathers on over 185,000 projects and compiled statistics for projects that specifically declare support for, or target, mobile platforms.

Overall, there were 2,300 projects that met the selection criteria, with 1,850 projects targeting the iconic mobile platform – Palm. Some of these projects dated back to 1997. But, in the past year, there were only 113 new projects for the Palm. This compares to 266 new projects for the iPhone, 191 for the Android platform, 174 for Windows Mobile and 96 for RIM/BlackBerry. Bringing up the rear were Maemo with 17 new projects and LiMo with only 6 new projects.

The H notes that open source appears to be alive and well on the iPhone, but the Black Duck report doesn't say which iPhone projects are available through the App Store, or if they require a jail broken iPhone. There is also remarkable growth in the Android platform which, given that it only shipped six months ago, is quite an achievement.

See also:

* Black Duck Software Analysis, release from Black Duck Software.

(djwm)