We’ve been talking on our blog and podcast about mobile Linux, and some of our findings from CAOS 10 – Mobility Matters. We’re seeing signs that we, along with mobile Linux and open source in general, are on the right track. It seems after a few fits and starts over the past few years, mobile Linux, consolidation and broader market share are all finally for real.

Here are a few developments that back up the contention:

*Esmertec buying Purple Labs to create Myriad Group AG: Esmertec, which is among software vendors in the Open Handset Alliance leveraging Android, is paying $82.4m in shares for Purple Labs, a mobile Linux, browser and messaging vendor. The combined company, Myriad, claims combined revenue in 2009 of around $125 million and represents 800 developers in America, Asia and Europe.

*A second major manufacturer and carrier (HTC and Vodafone) are bringing a second Android phone, the Magic, to market, highlighting the consolidation around Google’s Linux-based Android OS for the consumer space. We note in CAOS 10 how these first Android phones portend a positive future for the OS and open source on phones, and based on what we see today, that continues to be the case. We expect we’ll be seeing many more Android-based phones from major OEMs and carriers throughout the rest of 2009.

*There are also a number of new models coming out with LiMo, the mobile Linux consortium, software and specs on board. These include handsets from LG, Panasonic and Samsung. While LiMo is also looking to move beyond Asia and Europe and into the U.S., so is its opening competition from Nokia’s Symbian, which is in the process of being open sourced. Nokia and Qualcomm, which is also a backer of mobile Linux, plan on bringing Symbian phones to the U.S. We also discussed increasing competition among LiMo and Symbian in CAOS 10 and whether across the oceans or now in North America, this rivalry seems to be building.

These are all continued validation that the latest mobile efforts around Linux and open source software are truly contributing to consolidation, something the hardware, software and carrier players now pushing it have wanted for a long time.