After initially entering the mobile markets with browsers for mobile devices, Mozilla has now launched its own mobile operating system. The phones loaded with the new Firefox OS are expected to be seen in markets later this year.
The Firefox OS, which featured at the mobile world Conference, would be loaded onto devices like Huawei, ZTE of China and LG of Korea. These phones are most likely to feature Qualcomm chips. The OS will be seen on many inexpensive smartphones to attempt to challenge the power of established OS like iOS and Android.
The Firefox OS comes after repeated attempts to launch an open source smartphone OS. This OS would support third-party applications easily because they’re based on HTML 5 which is an emerging standard for Web applications.
The Firefox OS has a user interface similar to the Android and iOS. As the OS runs apps with Firefox’s browser engine, it is expected to perform better on lower-end smartphones hardware. Mozilla is currently targeting developing markets where Android and iOS are still high end phones. The phones running the Firefox OS would arrive in the second quarter of 2013 starting in Brazil, Columbia etc.
