The LiMo Foundation has unveiled the first round of handsets using its LiMo Platform, a Linux-based software platform for mobile devices. LiMo handsets have been announced by LG Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Samsung.

“The breadth of the initial wave of LiMo handsets-18 models from 7 vendors-consolidates LiMo’s role as the unifying force within Mobile Linux and highlights the strong momentum established in the 12 months since LiMo was launched,” said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation, in a statement. “We believe our rapid progress is propelled by LiMo’s inclusive and transparent governance model-with shared leadership and shared decision making-and pragmatic, code-centric approach to open-source innovation.”

Commercial LiMo handsets being announced at Mobile World Congress include: the MOTO U9, MOTO Z6w, MOTOROKR Z6, RAZR2 V8, RAZR2 V8 Luxury Edition and MOTOROKR E8 from Motorola; NTT DoCoMo FOMA N905i, FOMA N905″mu”, FOMA N705i and FOMA N705″mu” from NEC; NTT DoCoMo FOMA P905i, FOMA P905iTV, FOMA P705i and FOMA P705″mu” from Panasonic Mobile Communications; and the SGH-i800 from Samsung.

Prototypes and reference handset designs announced include the LG LiMo Phone from LG Electronics, OPAL(m) from Aplix and Purple Magic from Purple Labs.

The LiMo Foundation, launched in January 2007, also announced two new carrier members Orange and Access. Orange will carry Samsung’s LiMo handset the i800.