Purple Labs, a company based in France with a multinational management team, is pushing Linux mobile phones outward in capabilities and downward in price.

Positioned as “the only independent software vendor with a complete Linux solution for mass-market 3G phones”, Purple Labs pushes its customers to “replace their legacy RTOS with a flexible and scalable Linux platform, accelerating development of feature-rich 3G phones while reducing investment”.

The latest of these is Purple Magic, which Purple Labs calls a “reference design” for “the 1st sub-$100 3G Linux feature phone”. Features include music playback, Internet browsing, video telephony and video streaming, in addition to plain-old cell phone service.

And, as you can see from the picture, it doesn't look bad, either.

http://www.purplelabs.com/