MontaVista Software has sent out a press release stating it is the leader in embedded Linux for mobile devices, according to a recent report from analyst firm Venture Development Corporation (VDC). The VDC report also states that MontaVista Software is the fourth-largest mobile application operating system provider in terms of revenue, with the company’s Mobilinux product taking market share away from industry giants Microsoft, Symbian, and ACCESS/PalmSource.

MontaVista’s flagship mobile solution, Mobilinux, is an optimized Linux operating system and development environment for mobile devices with requirements for power management, hard real-time performance, rapid start-up times, and small footprints.

“Linux has been a major force for change within the embedded software industry and MontaVista Software is a leader in this segment of the market,” said Stephen Balacco, Director, Embedded Software Practice, Venture Development Corporation. “The technology leadership and execution of MontaVista is enhanced by its extensive global partner ecosystem, which includes many of the industry’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, boards and systems vendors, development tools suppliers, integrators, and independent software vendors.”

MontaVista Mobilinux is deployed on more than 35 million mobile devices worldwide, and supports several mobile architectures. Nearly all major phone manufacturers are MontaVista customers, including recently announced projects with Motorola, Enteos, and NEC. In 2006, nearly 15 million new handsets were sold worldwide running MontaVista Mobilinux. Mobile devices using Mobilinux provide end-users with a rich user experience that integrates music, video, and connected services.

“Linux is growing rapidly on mobile devices because of its solid reliability, its great flexibility, and because it accelerates the development cycle,” said Tom Kelly, president and CEO of MontaVista Software. “The leading handset OEMs have said that MontaVista Mobilinux and our ecosystem of partners have become central to their strategies because our innovations in hard real-time, hardware support, and tools give the OEMs capabilities for 3G and beyond.”