For the past few months, Mozilla has been working hard on their HTML5 and open web standards-based mobile operating system.
First announced back in July 2011 as the Boot to Gecko project, Mozilla demoed the operating system at MWC 2012, and detailed plans for an app store.
Now, Mozilla has announced that Boot to Gecko will be known as Firefox OS. It is obvious that they are bringing the challenge to their biggest opponent from the browser industry, Google, which has already enjoyed a fair bit of time in the limelight with Chrome OS., and more relevantly, Android. Firefox OS is expected to hit commercially in Brazil in 2013 with the help of Telefonica’s brand, Vivo, and Mozilla Corporation.
In a recent blog post, Mozilla said that the Firefox OS will be available on new generation smartphones, which will entirely meet open web standards. That means the basic functions of the devices such as calling, messaging, music and games can be developed entirely as HTML5 based applications. The non-profit company’s plans are simple, as they want to launch a fully open mobile ecosystem built entirely on HTML5.
“The introduction of the open mobile OS continues the Mozilla mission to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web for users and developers. 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,” – Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla said in the official blog post.
Mozilla also said that Firefox OS will provide a very good platform for next generation’s entry-level smartphones, and it will help the operator companies to offer such kind of devices at low price of range with rich performance.
Check out our previous coverage of Boot to Gecko, to get a better idea of the interface, etc., that can be expected.
