Firefox challenges Apple, Google

Mozilla, which campaigns for open development of the online world, showed off the first commercial version of the Firefox OS on the eve of the opening of the world's biggest mobile fair in Barcelona, Spain.

Smartphones equipped with Firefox OS look familiar to those on other systems, with an array of apps, or application programs, to be made available in an online store. It also uses a mapping program developed by Nokia.

"With the support of our 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," said Mozilla chief executive Gary Kovacs.

Mozilla, which aims to take third place behind Android and iOS, said it had already lured 17 operators including Sprint, China Unicom, KDDI, Singtel,Telefonica, Telenor and Deutsche Telecom.

The foundation said it was working with handset manufacturers South Korea's LG and China's TCL and ZTE on Firefox OS-run devices, with China's Huawei to follow later in the year.

All the smartphones would be run with Qualcomm Snapdragon application processors, which use an architecture licenced by ARM based in Cambridge, England.

They will be available from the northern hemisphere's summer, with the first devices arriving in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela. Other markets are to be announced soon, Mozilla said.

Google and Apple's operating systems combined now control more than 90% of the smartphone market. Google's Android ran 69% of all handsets sold last year while Apple's iOS held 22% of the market according to a study by independent analytical house Canalys.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge