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Firefox OS set for global expansion

Kathryn McConnachie
By Kathryn McConnachie, Digital Media Editor at ITWeb.
Johannesburg, 25 Feb 2013
In keeping with the mission behind Firefox OS, the ZTE Open is aimed at the entry-level smartphone market.
In keeping with the mission behind Firefox OS, the ZTE Open is aimed at the entry-level smartphone market.

Mozilla is aggressively pushing its new HTML5-based mobile operating system, Firefox OS.

At Mobile World Congress (MWC), in Barcelona, this weekend, Mozilla unveiled some of the first handsets that will go to market later this year. It also announced the launch of the Firefox Marketplace app store and its rollout plans, along with 18 carrier partners.

The Firefox OS is built entirely on open Web standards, and the features on the phone are developed as HTML5 applications.

Mozilla says the first wave of devices will be made available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela. Other markets "will be announced soon".

Alcatel, LG and ZTE are working with Mozilla to build the first commercial Firefox OS handsets. Mozilla says Huawei will also build Firefox OS devices later in the year. The forthcoming devices will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset.

Handsets already on show at MWC are the ZTE Open and the One Touch Fire from Alcatel. The ZTE One has a 3.5-inch display and a Cortex A5 processor. The One Touch Fire also has a 3.5-inch display, 1GHz processor, 512MB storage and 3.2MP camera. The Alcatel handset will launch in Latin America and Europe in June.

Impressive underdog

Principal device analyst at Ovum, Tony Cripps, says: "Firefox OS has achieved something that no device software platform has previously managed - translating an industry talking shop into a huge commitment from both carriers and hardware vendors at its commercial launch.

Alcatel's One Touch Fire handset will go on sale in Latin America and Europe in June.
Alcatel's One Touch Fire handset will go on sale in Latin America and Europe in June.

"Neither Android nor Symbian - the closest benchmarks in terms of broad industry sponsorship that we've previously seen - have rallied the level of support that Firefox OS has achieved so early in its development."

Cripps adds: "That is a huge achievement for what, in fairness, has looked like an underdog among the plethora of alternative software platforms currently vying to power the so-called 'third ecosystem'."

According to Cripps, the appeal of the platform's neutrality could be the reason for the widespread support Firefox OS has gained.

"The real acid test for Firefox OS and its long-term prospects is the quality of the software itself and the user and developer experiences that it fosters. However, it will be difficult to say whether it meets those needs sufficiently until we have seen retail devices.

"What is clear from the Firefox OS demonstration handsets that we have seen was that they are still some way from being market-ready, being both slow and buggy," says Cripps, adding that a low price is not a justification for poor performance.

As such, Cripps says he believes Firefox OS has some issues to overcome before the devices go to market. "This is especially true at a time when upgraded feature phones, such as Nokia's Asha Touch and Samsung's Rex ranges, are gradually eating into the low-end Android market."

Next two billion

Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs says: "With the support of our vibrant community and dedicated partners, our goal 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."

Operator partners include Am'erica M'ovil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telef'onica, Telenor, Telstra, TMN and VimpelCom.

Mozilla first revealed its intentions to build its own fully open, HTML5-based OS for smartphones and push against the siloed nature of existing mobile platforms in February last year, under the project name "Boot 2 Gecko".

The browser maker released a beta version of its Firefox OS simulator in December last year, and in January, it revealed the developer preview handsets (the Keon and Peak), which were built by Spanish start-up Geeksphone (in partnership with Telefonica).

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