Panasonic, NEC unveil 9 new Linux phones

* KDDI, Immersion join wireless Linux group LiMo

* LiMo still lacks support from top telephone makers

HELSINKI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp (6752.T) and NEC Corp (6701.T) unveiled nine new cellphone models on Tuesday that run the open-source LiMo operating system, wireless Linux group LiMo said.

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LiMo also said Japanese mobile carrier KDDI Corp (9433.T) and touch screen company Immersion Corp (IMMR.O) had joined the not-for-profit foundation. But LiMo has been missing support from the largest cellphone vendors. So far smaller phone makers NEC, Panasonic and Motorola Inc (MOT.N) have unveiled in total 42 phones using its software. At the same time, all the top handset vendors, except Nokia, have promised to produce phone models running Android software.

The world's second- and third-largest cellphone vendors, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and LG Electronics Inc(066570.KS), are members of LiMo, but have not unveiled commercial models.

LiMo hopes to benefit from its focus on giving greater say over software development to telecommunications operators. Its key members -- Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), France Telecom SA's (FTE.PA) Orange, Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc (9437.T), South Korea's SK Telecom Co Ltd (017670.KS), Telefonica SA (TEF.MC) and U.S. operator Verizon Wireless, a venture between Verizon Communications In (VZ.N) and Vodafone -- have pledged to introduce LiMo phones in 2009.

from Reuters