A Taiwanese hardware manufacturer is gearing up to begin mass producing a mobile phone based on open source software, according to sources in Taipei.

The NEO1973, from First International Computer (FIC), is planned as the first of a series of phones based around the OpenMoko platform.

William Lai, of OpenMoko's community development department, said that the 2.5G touch-screen phone will be available online from OpenMoko.com priced at $350. The phone is expected to be ready in September.

OpenMoko was set up by FIC to develop the open source platform for the phone. FIC is making hardware specifications available to software developers and is working closely with them.

The phone communicates on GSM networks and sends data using GPRS, offering data rates of around 60Kbps to 80Kbps.

Expected features include a 266MHz Samsung CPU, 64MB of Flash memory, 128MB of DRam, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3D graphics acceleration and motion sensing accelerometers.

The 2.8in touch-screen has full VGA resolution (480 x 640) in portrait orientation. Like Apple's iPhone, the screen covers most of the front of the handset and is used for dialling and most other functions. There are only two external buttons.

The phone accepts a microSD card for memory expansion, and a USB port is used for connection to a PC and charging the 1700mAh battery.

FIC is already working on more OpenMoko-based phones. A camera module is expected to be added in a later revision of the hardware.