Samsung and LG on Monday showed new phones using free Linux software from Mobile Linux foundation, which said in total 18 phones from seven vendors would use its software. Samsung, which has used Linux in its phones in 2006, launched new SGH-i800 phone model running on LiMo software at the Mobile World Congress trade show, while LG Electronics showed a prototype phone LG LiMo.

The Linux operating system has so far had little success on cellphones but its presence is increasing with LiMo rolling out its software platform, boosting the speed of new models reaching the market. Google is also using Linux to build its Android platform on.

The foundation said it has also signed up 9 new members, including France Telecom's mobile arm Orange, SoftBank and STMicroelectronics .

The market for software platforms on cellphones is lead by Nokia's S60, built on Symbian operating system, ahead of Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

However, many mobile industry heavyweights -- also Vodafone , NTT DoCoMo and Huawei -- are members of Mobile Linux foundation.

Motorola, which has been the main user of Linux software also before, plans to use LiMo platform in six phones, while NEC and Panasonic unit both will use it in four models tailor-made for NTT DoCoMo.