MOZILLA FIREFOX OS TO COMPETE AGAINST ANDROID,IOS AND WINDOWS

 The first device with Firefox OS will cost less than $100 (Rs 5,500). This was revealed by Matthew Key, the chief operating officer of Telefonica, a telecom operator which will be using Mozilla's upcoming mobile operating system that was announced recently. He also revealed that Brazil will be the first country to receive the device, which will arrive before March 2013 and will be manufactured by Alcatel and ZTE.

    Key also said, "The operating system will be better and cheaper than the android operating system from Google, and will also address update and fragmentation issues that plague Android."

The operating system will be able to reach most parts of the world since its official roll out as prominent operators have said that they will render support to it. These include the likes of like Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint,telecom italia,telefonica and Telenor (Uninor in India).

   During the mobile world congress in February 2012, Mozilla had said that it will launch its own HTML5-based mobile OS for smartphones. The upcoming OS, which was earlier called Boot To Gecko, will be an open platform, wherein the HTML5 based apps will be able to access functions like calling.

   Even though Google's Android OS also has HTML5-compatible apps, they cannot access such core functions the same way that stock apps can. This flexibility in the platform will mean that the web apps will be compatible with all editions of the OS, including the most recent ones.

  Since the apps will run on the cloud, the devices running Firefox OS will not need expensive hardware, thereby lowering the price of the smartphone without affecting its features. Moreover, the HTML5 support will attract developers since most developers are already well versed with this web standard.

   Phones running on Firefox OS will have all the standard features, such as camera, Bluetooth, USB port and Near Field Communication. The platform will be made available for others after W3C will assess and approve the web API standardisation.

More about the OS:

*Release date
The first handsets running the Firefox OS are likely to arrive in January 2013, with
 Telefonica revealing it will be launching its first device in Brazil sometime in the
 first quarter of the year.

Firefox OS devices will make it to the UK and US, with launch dates thought to be sometime in the second half of 2013.

*Cost

To start with, handsets running Firefox OS will be aimed at the budget end of the market, so expect to see a raft of super cheap smartphones.

Telefonica has said that its first handset, which will go on sale in Brazil, will come in at sub $100 (around £65).

In the future Mozilla will look to get the Firefox OS onto mid and high-end handsets, but it's starting at the bottom.

*Web-based HTML 5

Firefox OS is a HTML 5 web-based browser, which sits on top of Android kernals, with all the features on handsets basically being accessed through a browser – similar to Google's Chrome OS.

*Better than Android

Telefonica Chief Executive, Matthew Key has claimed that the Firefox OS will offer "a better budget experience than Android" – a big claim and something we'll put to the test when it arrives next year.

*Easy app porting

Developers should be able to easily port their HTML 5 apps to the Firefox Mobile OS, which apparently will be quite a lot according to research by Telefonica, which found 75% of Google Play and Apple App Store apps are already written in HTML 5.

*Social networking integration

Both Facebook and Twitter will be deeply integrated into the Firefox OS, allowing users to easily post updates, link contacts to profiles and keep up to date with all their friends.

*Full Google Maps

Thanks to the HTML 5 base of Firefox OS, a click of the Google Maps app reveals the full blown version of the mapping software which you get on your computer - impressive.

*Qualcomm power

All handsets which will run Firefox OS will sport Qualcomm processors, as Mozilla has done an exclusive deal with the chip maker.

*Widget potential

Even though the demo of Firefox OS we were shown had iPhone-esque homescreens of apps, Mozilla isn't ruling out the inclusion of widgets on the mobile platform.

*Simple, quick and efficient

What Firefox OS claims to offer is a simple, speedy and efficient user experience at the low end of the market, even on handsets running 600MHz processors.

Early screenshots :

FINAL VERDICT:

Mozilla is to be lauded for walking the walk with Firefox OS: The organization has long been a champion of open Web standards, and its putting its money and talent where its mouth is by backing a purely open, Web-based mobile strategy. Whether that strategy can succeed depends on whether the world is ready to embrace another major player in the mobile OS market and, looking a few years down the road, the degree to which mobile operating systems are going to matter in a mobile world that will be increasingly driven by an ecosystem driven by digital content and services.