Mozilla Enters The Competition In Smart Phone OS Tweet

Mozilla, The most reputed free software community is going to join the smart phone OS war by launching its own brand of mobile OS. Mozilla is attracting the world by announcing that it is planning to launch its HTML5 OS, an open source operating system for smart phones and tablets in 2013. This HTML5 OS is now officially named as Firefox OS by Mozilla.

Mozilla actually started "Boot to Gecko" project in the year 2011 and the main goal of this project is to develop a  complete, standalone operating system for the open web.This project focused on current limitations of web development on mobile such as lack of javascript & cookies, speed of internet access, broken pages and compressed pages on mobile devices etc...Later in the year 2012 "Boot to Gecko" was rebranded as Firefox OS  

The system's architecture has a Linux kernel running a thin layer of services and a web browser layered on top of that.Firefox OS works by integrating with device's hardware through pure HTML5 applications.  Firefox OS app's are developed using pure HTML5, CSS, Javascript & C++. This feature will significantly reduce the gap between the web-developers and the native app developers and allows web-developers to build app's.  All applications then use web technologies and the browser to display. HTML5 has the capability to reproduce any app that you can see on a typical smartphone. Apps can also be cached to your phone, so you can access some interesting apps even if you loss data connection.

Mozilla took support of leading global network operators Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Etisalat (Abu Dhabi), Smart (the Philippines), Sprint (USA), Telecom Italia (Italy), Telefonica (Spain) and Telenor (Norway) for the launch of Mobile OS.The first mobile devices with Firefox OS will be manufactured by TCL communication Technology(Alcatel) and ZTE. Mozilla will power its smartphones with Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors. The first Firefox OS featured smartphones are expected to launch in Brazil by early 2013 through Telefonica's commercial brand, Vivo.


Mozilla released it's under-development version of Firefox OS in the month of July 2012. You can check the demo of the Firefox OS in the below video.

Firefox OS running on a developer phone from ZTE

In the demo video we can have a tour of its built-in Firefox web browser, phone dialer, camera, gallery and market place on a developer phone manufactured by ZTE, one of the supporter for Mozilla's OS.

Here are some screens of developer's version of Firefox OS.

The above screen is the app menu in Firefox OS. It was designed in a 4*4 grid model with almost round application icons. The below one at the bottom of the screen is task bar .

The above screen is the Firefox web browser in the OS which is a similar one that is available on Android phones.

Gallery viewer in Firefox OS, which is designed in a tiled UI model.

It is the music player in Firefox OS.

It is the video player in Firefox OS that can support the proprietary H.264 codec.

Firefox OS also includes a built-in FM-Radio application available.

Based on the some users feedback on the demo video of Firefox OS, it has some negative issues regarding its responsiveness of the OS. However, these comments can be neglected as this is the demo of the development version OS and the issues like responsiveness may be improved in later versions.

The entire MOBILE WORLD is waiting to see whether the Mozilla succeeds in giving tough competition to its fellow competitors or not. Well, in order to know whether it can succeed or not, we should view the Firefox OS in different perspectives like end-users, developers, etc...

We shall start with mobile OS providers to get a better understanding.

Mobile OS Providers:

There has been already a tough competition fought among major OS providers like Google with its Android OS, Apple with its iOS and Microsoft with its Windows OS. All the OS providers have high control over their native apps by managing them to organize at respective app stores.

But HTML5 based Firefox apps follow the policy "Write Once, Deploy everywhere "  which may not work. Mozilla should also prepare itself for another competitor Tizen, the free and open source HTML5 based mobile OS. Tizen is supported by two giant companies Samsung & Intel , which makes it to be in the competition. Both Mozilla's & Tizen's motive is to bring the smart phone experience to higher proportion of population at lower cost.

Mobile Developer Community:

HTML5 apps of Firefox OS created much interest in developers due to its  "Write Once, Deploy everywhere  " policy. But when performance issues are considered , native apps from providers like Google, Apple & Microsoft perform much better than HTML5 based apps.

The most important issue considered by the developer is the revenue potential of the app. The native apps have more revenue potential than HTML5 based apps due their easy distribution & discoverability  in the centralized app stores. The most web-based apps are advertisement supported. So, there are more chances that developers show interest in developing native apps.

End User:

End users always expect apps with high functionality & performance and ease of use. As HTML5 is an evolving technology, it may not support some features & meet user requirements and hence users still continue to show interest on native apps.

By considering the above issues we cannot depict the success or failure of Firefox OS. Although Mozilla is late in competition by few years but it still have the potential to give a tough fight to its competitors. Mozilla can acquire more users if it can improve the performance of its Firefox OS in its later versions. Moreover, Mozilla's mission is to improve the web standards and to bring the smart phone experience to higher proportion of population at lower cost but not to be a just another competitor in the mobile world.

Lets wait and see till 2013 for Firefox OS release and its response.....

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