A former Motorola executive has started up a Shanghai-based company manufacturing Linux-based smartphones. The company, E28, unveiled in Hong Kong on Monday its first product running Linux - the e2800.
Of the five people in E28's management team, three worked for Motorola's Personal Communications Systems (PCS) division in Asia-Pacific before joining E28. This includes Roger Kung, founder and chief executive of E28, who was president of Motorola PCS Asia Pacific until October last year.
Chief technology and platform officer Nathan Wang was formerly general manager at Motorola's PCS division for end-to-end solutions until the same time. The E28 resembles the Motorola A760, which was launched in September.
A comparison of the two phones showed similarities in design although the user interfaces differed. Both are dual-band phones with similar-sized touch screens and specifications. However, the e2800 features more memory, an SD card slot and, according to Mr Kung, does not run Trolltech's Qt/Embedded application development framework as used in the A760.
Mr Kung said the e2800 was developed over 10 months by the company's engineering team. He said he was unfamiliar with the A760, as he was management and not engineering.