Panasonic and NEC Corp have unveiled nine mobile phones that will run the open-source Linux operating system, LiMo. Reuters informs that the mobile phone market has been shifting to open source software development to reduce costs.

LiMo OS has had little success in the mobile phone industry as most mobile phone manufacturers eye Google’s Android.

According to Reuters, LiMo said that Japanese mobile operator KDDI Corp and touchscreen manufacturer Immersion Corp have joined the Linux foundation. However, LiMo does not yet receive support from any major mobile phone maker.

There should be no support in the future as all major handset vendors have announced to produce cellphones that will run Android. Nokia, however, did not announce any plan to switch to Android, but the company seems to slowly liquidate the Symbian OS. On the other side, Motorola has announced that its plan to get back in business as a major mobile phone maker is to release a series of Android-based phones.