Firefox OS launches at MWC on ZTE Open and Alcatel OT Fire
Mozilla is 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. The first two also showcased phones with Firefox OS at the MWC.
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).
Alcatel One Touch Fire
As for the phones, the Alcatel One Touch Fire will launch first in China (Mozilla has partnered up with China Unicom), Latin America, and will be the first Firefox OS phone to hit Europe, specifically Poland in the summer through Deutsche Telecom.
It has a 3.5” screen, a 1GHz processor with 256MB RAM, 3.2MP camera, 512MB of storage and a microSD card slot (with a 2GB card in the bundle). On the connectivity side, there’s 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS (with Nokia HERE maps).
ZTE Open
The ZTE Open sports similar specs - a 3.5” HVGA screen and a Cortex-A5 processor at 1GHz and 256MB RAM. The storage deal is the same - 512MB in the phone, 2GB on a preloaded microSD card. There’s 3G connectivity (7.2Mbps HSDPA, 5.76Mbps HSUPA), along with Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and FM Radio.
LG and Huawei will also be announcing Firefox OS phones soon. You can check out Mozilla’s blog post for more info on carriers and initial launch countries and learn more about the OS here.
