A year ago, Mozilla announced its plans to enter into the already crowded smartphone operating system field. Originally called Boot to Gecko, Mozilla later renamed it Firefox OS. Today as part of its Mobile World Congress announcement, Mozilla said the first smartphones using the operating system will make their debut later this year.
Mozilla"s press release said that Alcatel, LG and ZTE will all launch smartphones that will use Firefox OS – Huawei is also coming, but sometime later – and it has secured 17 wireless operators around the world to sell those phones. Deutsche Telekom will be the first out of the gate, selling the Alcatel One Touch Fire in Poland later this summer. Other countries slated to get Firefox OS smartphones this year include Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.
All of the Firefox smartphones will have a version of Qualcomm"s Snapdragon processor as part of their hardware. In a separate press release, Mozilla offered details on the Firefox Marketplace, which will give owners of Firefox OS phones a way to download and/or purchase HTML5-based apps.
And will U.S. residents get the opportunity to buy a Firefox OS phone? Yes, but not for a while. Engadget reports that the US will have to wait until sometime in 2014 for the Firefox OS to make its debut.
Source: Mozilla | Image via Mozilla