Azingo (formerly Celunite), and NXP, an independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, announced today that they will collaborate on the development of a new open mobile platform for manufacturers and operators of 3G and 3.5G Linux-based mobile phones.

Azingo Mobile will be optimized for NXP’s Nexperia cellular system solutions for 3G and 3.5G networks, with the powerful dual-mode EDGE/UMTS and EDGE/HSPA multimedia platforms running on a single ARM9 processor core. Availability of the Azingo open mobile software suite on the powerful and cost-effective NXP single core architecture represents a new price, capability set and small-footprint software platform for the 3G Linux-based feature phones.

Azingo Mobile includes a comprehensive suite of open mobile software and services designed to help companies deliver web 2.0 applications, music, video, vivid graphics and more to a wide range of mobile phones. Based on LiMo Foundation software and supporting a highly configurable user interface, the Azingo platform offers handset manufacturers and operators the ability to create numerous unique mobile products to target diverse market segments from a single software code base.

“There’s a growing demand from large operators to deliver even higher performing 3G phones in the mid-tier price range,” said Mahesh Veerina, Azingo CEO. “The Azingo/NXP joint solution is an attractive platform for this market, given its price/performance ratio. Leveraging LiMo’s ecosystem is an added benefit.”

“By offering a Linux-based platform on a single core, the Nexperia cellular system solutions give greater flexibility, allowing easy development and upgrades,” said Dan Rabinovitsj, senior vice president and general manager, Cellular Business, NXP Semiconductors. “The Azingo/NXP solution enables mobile operators to deliver rich user experiences to mobile phones on a processor size and at a cost not previously available.”

Azingo Mobile includes all of the software, development tools, documentation and training required to design and commercialize new mobile phone products. The platform includes a highly configurable user interface, a world-class suite of mobile applications, advanced and comprehensive mobile middleware frameworks, a mobile-optimized Linux kernel and an SDK and software development tools to develop web and multimedia-oriented applications for mobile phones.

The Nexperia cellular system solutions with Linux deliver seamless service coverage in 2G, 3 and 3.5G networks as well as advanced multimedia features to take full advantage of 3G possibilities. The Nexperia cellular system solutions feature advanced audio and video capabilities and extensive peripheral support for feature-rich 3G phones with low power consumption.

The LiMo Foundation was founded by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone to develop the world’s first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices. Azingo is a core member of LiMo.