Attending the Open Mobile Exchange at OSCON today, I heard some differing perspectives on the role and impact of open source in the mobile software market. We heard from Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin how significant Linux is in the mobile and embedded spaces, some of the non-desktop Linux uses we predicted would be hot this year.

Zemlin recently commented that Nokia’s opening of the Symbian OS marks the beginning of a ‘full-scale war for the mobile OS.’ He talked about the flexibility advantages of Linux, and how only a full-scale OS development effort such as Linux will be able to keep up with the complexity, hardware, middleware and content of next-generation mobile devices.

Others, such as Stefano Maffulli from mobile open source player Funambol, say the mobile software battle will be fought at the browser-level. This next round of browser wars, however, will be characterized by a move to openness prompted by the need for interoperability, flexibility and the lessons of past, according to Maffulli.

Another view, held by Trolltech (now a Nokia company) Chief Technologist Benoit Schillings, is that the mobile operating system consists of low-level components common to all of the major systems and will not be as important going forward. Instead, Schillings sees the battle being fought at the software layers above the OS and in their interoperability and functionality with other devices, such as desktop and notebook computers.

While there is debate about where mobile open source software will have the greatest opportunities and the greatest fights, there seems to be agreement that open source, open standards and real openness will be a critical to mobile software going forward.