Massive interest in world’s first sub-$100 3G Linux mobile phone

Chambéry, FRANCE – Purple Labs, the leading supplier of mobile Linux solutions for mass-market 3G phones, announced today the addition of Arnaud Dammert to its executive team. As vice president of sales for EMEA, Dammert will oversee the expansion of the Purple Labs ecosystem across chipset vendors, handset manufacturers and mobile network operators.

“We are delighted to have Arnaud join us at such an exciting time,” said Simon Wilkinson, chief executive officer of Purple Labs. “During the recent Mobile World Congress, European mobile operators expressed very strong interest in our sub-$100 3G Linux feature phone. Arnaud’s track record in building successful partnerships will accelerate our leadership in bringing LiMo-compliant devices to the European market.”

In January, NXP Semiconductors and Purple Labs jointly announced the Purple Magic reference phone, the world’s first 3G Linux feature phone with a transfer price below US$100. With popular 3G features including video telephony, music playback, high-speed Internet browsing and video streaming, the Purple Magic is well suited for both European prepay markets and the rapidly expanding emerging markets of India, Asia and Latin America.

Dammert comes to Purple Labs from Openwave Systems, where as EMEA sales director he was instrumental in establishing Openwave as the leading supplier of mobile phone software in the region. This followed a successful role at Palm Computing, where Dammert was business development manager in charge of software licensing to European handset manufacturers.