The nonprofit company
made the announcement at a news conference on the eve of the world's
largest mobile technology show, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,
Spain, under the new marketing slogan "Unleash the fox."
The company says it is
partnering with 18 network operators and four handset manufacturers
around the world to launch handsets running its open-source mobile
operating system, which it also demonstrated Sunday.
Alcatel, LG and ZTE will
be first to build the first Firefox OS devices, with Huawei to follow
later in the year, a spokesman said.
The company said the
first wave of Firefox devices would go on sale beginning in July in
Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and
Venezuela.
The new software is built
on open Web standards and is capable of operating on much less
sophisticated devices than many existing smartphones, the company says.
"Firefox OS will break
down the walls between apps and the Web because Firefox OS apps are
built using Web technologies, like HTML5," said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's
senior vice president of products.
"We expect to see lots of
amazing apps people love built for Firefox OS because more developers
are already creating for the Web than for any other platform."
Developers will be free
to build and sell mobile applications for the operating system without
having to share revenue with Apple or Google.
John Jackson, vice
president of the research company IDC, said, "The impressive lineup of
operators who have now pledged to distribute Firefox OS devices speaks
clearly and powerfully to the platform's potential and points to 2013
being a breakout year for Mozilla in the mobile domain.
However, Stuart Miles,
editor of gadget review site Pocket-lint, said while there was potential
for success in developing countries, the company faced an uphill
struggle against the established big players.
"It's an interesting
move, mainly because I think the people that are backing it are doing so
to either hedge their bets or to provide leverage against the bigger
players.
"The idea of HTML web
apps is one that Apple had five years ago with the launch of the iPhone
but soon realized that they could make much more money by charging for
apps rather than giving them away for free. As an organization, Mozilla
doesn't have those concerns."
Mozilla says operators
who have committed to devices include América Móvil, China Unicom,
Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon,
Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telenor,
TMN and VimpelCom.
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