Mozilla launch Firefox mobile OS to break Apple and Google stranglehold and entice coders

Not-for-profit group Mozilla are attempting to break the smartphone duopoly held by Apple's iOS and Google's Android with today's release of their own Firefox operating system


Mozilla is describing their new software as "open web devices" geared towards helping manufacturers, designers, developers - and consumers - to enjoy the benefits of lower-priced smartphone technology that enjoys all the efficiency and usability of higher-end devices.

According to Readwrite.com:

Despite some visual similarities, Firefox OS is not like Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, much less like BlackBerry or Microsoft’s Windows Phone. These are platforms that run on operating systems built with “native” code specific to that platform. From Mozilla's perspective, the Web is the operating system. If you can write code to design and build a website, you can write code to design and build an app for Firefox OS.

Built on HTML5 and endorsed with the goodwill of an estimated eight million developers worldwide, Firefox believe their inclusive technology will reinvent the smartphone market to a fairer and  

"We're hungry, but we play fair and we'll work with horizontal partners," Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich says.

"We're open source, so we're lower cost and easier to work with. Look at the operating system fragmentation. Most users we're targeting are stuck with the curse of Gingerbread (Android 2.3) and that's not a fully functional mobile OS. Firefox is. You can see the writing on the wall."

20 mobile carriers, including ZTE, will launch Mozilla smartphones starting at €69. Telefonica of Spain, Latin America and Asia plan to bring Firefox OS devices to its entire coverage area by the end of 2014.

"What we aspire to is giving them the open-endedness of the Web," Eich said. "I am staking my reputation, as I have, on open standards and continue to do so."