Vodafone injected new life into the Linux platform with yesterday’s announcement of the Samsung 360 H1 Smartphone, which incorporates the LiMo Foundation’s R2 open source operating system.

The Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung is a touchscreen HSDPA 7.2 device tied to the Vodafone 360 service, which is a suite of Internet services for the mobile and PC. Reminiscent of some other services, Vodafone 360 brings together all the contacts from the mobile phone, social networks and other Internet accounts. The service includes a 3D zoom feature that enables users to browse through their latest interaction in chronological order.

Vodafone 360 will first launch in eight European countries by Christmas.

At launch, the full 360 experience will be available on two handsets built to Vodafone’s specs by Samsung. In addition, four Nokia Symbian smartphones will come pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 and part or all of the service will be downloadable to more than 100 phones.

The LiMo Foundation also got a boost of confidence with the re-affirmation by all operator members of their intention to bring LiMo R2 devices and associated services to market during 2009/2010.

Operators that intend to bring the handsets to market include NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefonica, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, according to the foundation. OEMs associated with the LiMo Foundation include LG, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Casio Hitachi, Huawei and ZTE.