New analyst’s report predicts a bright future for Linux mobile market with a 62% share expected by the year 2015. Rory MacDonald investigates these astonishing claims…

Google's Android and Chrome OS, Intel-Nokia's MeeGo and Palm's webOS are among the Linux-based operating systems that will run 62% of non-smartphones by 2015, according to ABI Research.

Samsung announced an "open" mobile platform called "Bada," which appears to be a programmable UI layer that runs on its proprietary feature phones, although one report defines Bada as Samsung's own Linux OS. Meanwhile, a Korean analyst report claims that Samsung plans to discard Symbian and downshift Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

A recent report from ABI Research highlights the rise of mobile Linux, estimating that 23 percent of the world’s smartphones will have a Linux operating system by 2013. It appears that much of that growth will come at the expense of Nokia’s Symbian, and that LiMo and Android will be the main beneficiaries.

The open-source Linux operating system is seeing major growth in the mobile and embedded space, especially in the smartphone market. Handset makers and mobile carriers are adopting open-source software because it significantly reduces licensing and development costs and also provides higher flexibility.

Who's running Ubuntu - and why? You can find the answers in our WorksWithU 1000 survey and associated research report - which will ultimately track 1000 businesses, schools, government agencies and non-profit organizations running Ubuntu servers, desktops and mobile devices. Here's some background.

According to a Computerworld Singapore report quoting newly published research, 2012 will be the year of the Linux mobile phone, with some 31 percent of all smart phones, or 331 million devices, running Linux. The prediction is based largely upon the fact that Linux has a much faster growth rate than either Symbian or Windows Mobile, some 75 percent year on year.

Linux stacks such as Moblin and Maemo will dominate the mobile Internet device (MID) market, says a report by ABI Research. The firm expects Moblin to take 42 percent of the market in 2013, when it expects 86 million Linux-enabled MIDs to ship.

Linux has made its way from the desktop to the server room, and now it is poised to take over mobile devices. In fact, by at least one report it already has. But as mobile developers are painfully aware, the mobile space is quite fragmented, and there are many versions of Linux to target. Which one is best for your project?