Aiming to deliver a rich and full Internet experience on a new generation of ultra-mobile computers, chip designer ARM Holdings said today it has partnered with six other companies to develop a new computing platform for such devices. The result will be a Linux-based open-source platform -- including a mobile operating system, application development framework, and Internet browser -- for UMPCs, mobile devices that are typically larger and more powerful than BlackBerry-style smartphones.

Announced today at the fourth annual ARM Developers' Conference in Santa Clara, Calif., the collaboration is a direct shot at Intel, which has announced its own ambitious plans for UMPC silicon and software. The other companies involved in the partnership are Marvell, MontaVista, Movial, Mozilla, Samsung, and Texas Instruments.

Industry research firm In-Stat expects the market for UMPCs to grow by more than 20% a year over the next decade.

"What we're seeing throughout our partnerships is a lot of interest in mobile computing devices that provide a rich browser experience, on a slightly bigger screen and that are larger than a smartphone," says Kerry McGuire, director of strategic alliances for ARM's connected mobile computing unit. "The requirement for those users is a full Internet experience, and this effort is focused on getting the Mozilla Firefox browser component plugged into the Linux environment."

McGuire says that the full platform should be complete by early 2008 and that devices based on it will reach the market in early 2009.

Earlier this year at 3GSM in Beijing, Taiwanese handset maker HTC unveiled an ultra-mobile device called the Shift, saying that it will use Intel's new Ultra Mobile Platform 2007 chipset. The company says the Intel platform is designed to enable a rich and full Internet experience while significantly adding battery life.

The new platform also will compete with new, sophisticated browsing devices like Apple's iPhone and the Nokia N95, which is based on the Symbian operating system. ARM believes that an open-source platform for super-smartphones will lead to more applications, longer battery life, and faster time to market for new devices and applications.

"In Intel's original strategy [for UMPCs], they focused on productivity-oriented applications that aren't really the right fit for what we see as the high volume opportunity," adds McGuire. "That became clear when the iPhone and the new Nokia devices hit the street -- what people are looking for is a full Internet experience on a portable device that gives you all-day use."