Telecom Lead America: Mozilla, developer of firefox
internet browser, is ready to unveil a new fully open mobile ecosystem based on
HTML5.
As the battle in the mobile industry stiffens, service
providers and device manufacturers have lend their support for the new
initiative taken by Mozilla.
Leading telecom companies such as Deutsche Telekom,
Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Telenor support a
new Firefox smartphone platform.
With this new platform, these operators reckon the
potential of the technology to deliver compelling smartphone experiences at
attainable prices.
The new platform from Mozilla is set to give stiff
competition to the incumbents such as Google, Apple and Nokia.
Using the Firefox brand, the new operating system will
power the launch of smartphones built entirely to open Web standards, where all
of the device’s capabilities can be developed as HTML5 applications.
As billions of users are expected to come online for the
first time in the coming years, it is important to deliver a compelling
smartphone experience that anyone can use. The large number of operators and
manufacturers now supporting this effort will bring additional resources and
diversity to our global offerings,” said Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla.
Device manufacturers TCL Communication Technology (under
the Alcatel One Touch brand) and ZTE will manufacture the first devices to
feature the new Firefox OS, using Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm
Incorporated.
The first Firefox OS powered devices are expected to
launch commercially in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefonica’s
commercial brand, Vivo.
Earlier, Mozilla partnered with Telefonica’s Digital unit
to showcase a new phone architecture where every phone feature is an HTML5
application.
The Firefox OS for mobile devices is built on Mozilla’s
Boot to Gecko project which unlocks many of the current limitations of web
development on mobile.
