Mozilla has partnered with ZTE and Alcatel to introduce the first two smartphones powered by its HTML5-based mobile operating system, Firefox OS, to the European market.
Mozilla unveiled both the Firefox OS and Firefox Marketplace app store at the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, earlier this year, during which it also announced the Firefox-operated smartphones.
The Firefox OS is built entirely on open Web standards, and the features on the phone are developed as HTML5 applications.
Mozilla has partnered with 20 hardware and operating partners to help roll out Firefox OS. The first smartphones running the OS, the Alcatel One Touch Fire and the ZTE Open, will first be released in Central and Eastern Europe, and to other world markets later this year.
Watch out Android
The expectation for the mobile success of Firefox OS is high, with many industry pundits singing praises to the challenge the OS brings to existing mobile ecosystems.
Research vice-president for the International Data Corporation, John Jackson, says operators, OEMs, and developers are growing ever more interested in the emergence of a viable alternative mobile platform.
"One of our recent surveys found Firefox OS to be more compelling to developers over Tizen, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire, despite no commercial products being available yet. It is clear that influential members of the operator, OEM, and developer communities at both global and hyper-local levels see the potential of Mozilla's Firefox OS to be that next platform."
Tech analyst Liron Segev says Firefox OS would certainly not struggle to grab the attention and imagination of developers. "Yes, it doesn't have the following from a development point of view like Android does. But we have to remember that Android also started out somewhere and quickly scaled up.
"With Firefox being open source and something developers can easily build for, it can rally the developing community behind it. And I think we'll have a nice new player in the market," says Segev.
He adds that when it comes to smartphones, developers' support is crucial. "That was the initial mistake BlackBerry made and something that they have to fix quite quickly with the BlackBerry 10 platform. Developers are gold in this market."
Principal device analyst at Ovum, Tony Cripps, says Firefox OS has achieved something no device software platform has previously managed - translating an industry talking shop into a huge commitment from both carriers and hardware vendors at its commercial launch.
"Neither Android nor Symbian - the closest benchmarks in terms of broad industry sponsorship that we've previously seen - have rallied the level of support that Firefox OS has achieved in its early development."
According to Cripps, the real acid test for Firefox OS and its long-term prospects is the quality of the software itself, and the user and developer experiences that it fosters. "However, it will be difficult to say whether it meets those needs sufficiently until we have seen retail devices."
Longevity
Segev says Firefox OS's success largely hinges on its marketing strategy. "The more they spend in this arena, the more they will see in return on investment. They will thus have to come to the party and offer the device at a cheap price that is really competitive and convince people to buy it."
Segev says one should not forget that Alcatel is a big brand name. "It's just not big in SA. The partnership could be one of the ways to force some of the brand names back into the country."
He adds that Firefox is a brand that has been built for the Web from the ground up. The holy grail of mobile is to be like Android, which is fully integrated to everything that is connected. If Firefox can achieve this, it has quite good chance to succeed and be recognised as one of the big players in the mobile market."
Segev says big mobile manufacturers are likely to keep a close eye on Firefox OS and its evolution. "When you look at Samsung, for example, they have released a device with every operating system to every market and every field. So it's not inconceivable for them to release a device running on Firefox if it proves to be successful."