Mozilla, the non-profit foundation behind the popular Firefox Web
browser, is getting into phones. But it's not stopping at Web browsers -
it's launching an entire phone operating system.
The Mountain View,
Calif.-based foundation said Sunday that phones running Firefox OS will
appear this summer, starting in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico,
Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.
The Firefox OS
will land in a crowded environment, where many small operating systems
are trying to become the "third eco-system," alongside Apple's iOS and
Google's Android. Together, those two account for 91 percent of
smartphone sales, according to research firm IDC.
Mozilla
Foundation has an ally in phone companies, who are interested in seeing
an alternative to Apple and Google, particularly one coming from a
non-profit foundation. Thirteen phone companies around the world have
committed to supporting Firefox phones, Mozilla said, including Sprint
Nextel in the U.S., though it gave no time frame for a release. Other
supporters include Telecom Italia, America Movil of Mexico and Deutsche
Telekom of Germany. DT is the parent of T-Mobile USA, but plans to sell
Firefox phones first in Poland.
Phone makers that plan to make
Firefox phones include Huawei and ZTE of China and LG of Korea. The
first devices will be inexpensive touchscreen smartphones.
All the
phones will run on chips supplied by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc.,
whose CEO Paul Jacobs appeared at Mozilla's press event Sunday in
Barcelona, Spain, on the eve of the world's largest cellphone trade
show.
The industry has seen various attempts to launch "open"
smartphone operating systems, with little success. Jay Sullivan, vice
president of products at Mozilla, said these failed because they were
designed "by committee," with too many constituents to please. While
developing and supporting the Firefox browser, Mozilla has learned to
develop large-scale "open" projects effectively, he said.
He also
said that putting quality third-party applications on Firefox phones
will be easy, because they're based on HTML 5, an emerging standard for
Web applications.
"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," said Tony Cripps an analyst
at research firm Ovum. "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."
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