The Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona is green now with Mozilla that officially launching their Firefox OS for mobile phones and are proud to announce that they have deals with 18 carriers, a partnership with Qualcomm to use their Snapdragon chipsets and four manufacturers – ZTE, Alcatel, LG and Huawei. These operators 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. The first two also showcased phones with Firefox OS at the MWC. The first Firefox OS devices will be available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela. Additional markets will be announced soon.
Firefox OS
The Firefox OS uses HTML5-based apps that run on technology shared with the Firefox browser and initially targets the entry level segment. The goal is to create an open source OS, that web developers can easily create apps for and post them on the Firefox Marketplace.
You can check out Marketplace if you have Firefox Aurora for Android. There you’ll find social networking apps for Facebook and Twitter, Nokia’s HERE mapping solution, Box integration, games from EA Mobile and Disney Mobile Games.
The OS has the same commitment to privacy, security and customizations that the Firefox browser is known for and places a strong emphasis on search.
The Firefox OS also supports video calling over Web RTC – a browser-based tech, also available on the Android Firefox Aurora app. It will eventually make its way to desktop browsers too (Firefox and Chrome at least).
Firefox Marketplace
Firefox Marketplace will offer apps in categories like games, news and media, business and productivity. These apps are tied to you and your online identity to take across devices and platforms. Leading mobile apps and Web developers around the globe will leverage the power of the Web unlocked by Mozilla to release apps in the Firefox Marketplace.
The Web enables limitless innovation and with Firefox Marketplace. Every Web developer can easily create and distribute HTML5 apps so you can find an app for whatever you want – even local, niche and emerging topics. Firefox Marketplace will include popular apps such as AccuWeather, Airbnb, Box, Cut the Rope, Disney Mobile Games, EA games, Facebook, Nokia HERE, MTV Brasil, Pulse News, SoundCloud, SporTV, Terra, Time Out and Twitter as well as personally-tailored and local apps that are relevant to users in their respective regions.
Firefox Marketplace will make smartphones capable of offering more powerful and immersive Web app experiences. The Web now has the potential to be the world’s largest marketplace with the new Web APIs Mozilla developed. The open Web platform and these new Web APIs also enable developers to distribute apps directly, with no need for gatekeepers, true to the Mozilla mission of creating choice, innovation and opportunity on the Web.
Firefox Marketplace can be previewed on Firefox for Android Aurora and will be offered with the first Firefox OS phones to launch later this year.
Via, Via 2