LONDON (Reuters) - A group of the world’s mobile operators and handset makers said on Thursday they are to join together to develop an open-source Linux-based operating system that could to be used in phones by the end of 2007.

Mobile network operators Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo and handset makers Motorola, Samsung, NEC and Panasonic, said they would form an independent not-for-profit group to share the costs and speed up mobile software and handsets and cut the number of operating platforms on the market.

I’m curious what this will do for the homebrew/customization scene. Ideal scenario: a (usable!) open source operating system for cellphones. Think about how many times you heard someone complain about sucky phone menus — and then imagine what would happen if people would finally be able to do something about it.

This goes way deeper than Palm OS or Symbian in terms of the possibilities — if nobody screws this up it could spawn a wave of mobile user interface innovation, and create an infrastructure of experimentation where 20 year old kids can innovate in a slow-moving industry.

If you put the right tools into the hands of people who are actually using a system, and who aren’t pulled back by business interests, amazing things can happen. Think of Firefox/Flock, of OpenWRT, or even Napster.

(Yeah this isn’t necessarily the motivational factor for these companies, but you can’t develop a Linux derivate without open sourcing the result — so people will have access to a significant part of crucial sourcecode.)

Link: Mobile players form Linux platform pact - Yahoo! News, Slashdot | Cellular Companies Join to Improve Linux