Sony has become the fifth mobile phone manufacturer - after ZTE, Alcatel, LG and Huawei - to commit to launching smartphones running the new Firefox OS platform from Mozilla.
Sony says it will bring its first Firefox OS handsets to market in 2014. Sony's announcement followed the news that Firefox OS is being backed by 18 carriers, in 14 regions. At Mobile World Congress (MWC), in Barcelona, ZTE and Alcatel have also been the first to unveil their commercial Firefox OS handsets, the ZTE Open and One Touch Fire, respectively.
The Firefox OS is built entirely on open Web standards, and the features on the phone are developed as HTML5 applications. Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs has said the organisation's goal with Firefox OS is to "level the playing field and usher in an explosion of content and services that will meet the diverse needs of the next two billion people online".
Twitter has also stepped up to the plate and announced it will have a native Firefox OS client available in the Firefox Marketplace when the first Firefox OS devices begin to ship.
Twitter says it is excited about the future of Firefox OS: "Similar to our other mobile apps, Twitter for Firefox OS has a rich interface, featuring the Home, Connect, Discover and Me tabs, as well as the search and compose Tweet icons, so you can easily find and send Tweets from anywhere in the app.
"We've also implemented support for a feature unique to Firefox OS: Web Activities. This lets you tweet photos directly out of any app that also supports Web activities such as the built-in photos app."
Meanwhile, it has also been reported that smartphone giant, Samsung, has indicated it has no interest in building phones for the new OS. According to CNET, a high-level Samsung executive said at MWC in Barcelona that the smartphone giant is not interested in the browser-based Firefox OS.
Samsung is currently focused heavily on Android and has announced plans to launch its first Tizen-based OS around July/August. It is expected that an announcement will be made by the Tizen Association to this effect at MWC this week. Tizen is another upstart OS which is also being punted as an alternative to the dominant platforms Android and iOS.
Share