Trolltech has announced the discontinuation of its Greenphone open source reference handset. The company says they have run out of stock and will not offer any further additional kits. As an open, Linux-based mobile phone, Qtopia Greenphone was a project initiated by Trolltech to stimulate open development of mobile phones and to serve as an industry catalyst for the open phone movement.

The company is now pointing interested users to the OpenMoko project and FIC Neo1973 phone. Trolltech recently ported its Qtopia Phone Edition software to the Neo 1973 phone.

In an article at news.com Trolltech spokesperson David Bialer says:

“We looked at the market and saw other devices out there, like OpenMoko’s device,” said Bialer. “They can do it cheaper and faster, so it doesn’t make sense for us to be doing that. We don’t want to be a hardware company.”

Bialer claimed that demand had recently been increasing for the Greenphone, but Trolltech would try to divert that demand to OpenMoko. “We’re not (discontinuing the Greenphone) because there is no demand,” he said. “It is an older design and we are not the best hardware company. It’s a lot of work shipping these phones all over the world, dealing with customs and cracked screens. We realized this is not our core competency.”

Thanks Ron!