FireFox OS Gains Traction and Major Carrier Support with Sprint

Hothardware ^ | Friday, September 14, 2012 | Paul Lilly

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ready or not, yet another mobile operating system is about to join the fray. Perhaps you've heard of Firefox OS, otherwise known as Boot to Gecko (B2G). Firefox OS is Mozilla's attempt to approach the mobile scene in a different way, one in which apps run in HTML5 and nothing else. Short and sweet, Mozilla wants to shake up the mobile OS scene the same way it did the browser market many years ago, and it's well on its way to doing that.

Sprint is reportedly on board to support Firefox OS, and so is Deutsche Telekom, parent company of T-Mobile. The significance there is that you could very well end up seeing Firefox OS phones shipping next year, and given that apps are totally invested in HTML5, how appropriate is it that the two carriers getting on board are the only two major ones that offer unlimited data?

The first Firefox OS phones are said to launch in Brazil. Mozilla's strategy is to target the developing world where there's a demand for better feature phones, and from there, the sky's the limit.

Image Source: Phonearena.com

"We see an opportunity to serve users by converting them from feature phones to inexpensive smartphones," Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich told TechWeekEurope in an interview. "The action is in the emerging market, not going up against the top end of the market in the U.S., where Android is chasing Apple."

Should Mozilla decide to take on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, one thing it has going for it is that it's based on open standards, so Mozilla isn't likely to get bogged down in patent trials.

"I do think one of our biggest benefits is in the standards process," Eich added. "W3C has a royalty-free patent protocol. Everyone has a chance to pull back their IPR or else to put it forward into the standard. When you get enough people in the standards body, you get royalty free standards."

Take a look at some of Firefox OS's screenshots and tell us what you think.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I like this.

[Brookhaven]

Isn’t this the same theory as the “chrome OS”—browser as operating system (at least as far as the user is concerned).

People have been talking about this since the Netscape days. Saying the browser would eventually kill off the OS (or make it inconsequential).

[Squawk 8888]

This could be a game-changer IMO.

[bigbob]

Looks pretty slick, and running everything in HTML5 is a clever way to differentiate. We’ll see what app developers think. Also looks like a good solution for embedded applications.

But, how will they advertize insurance if the gecko gets the boot?

[Dr. Sivana]

Isn’t this the same theory as the “chrome OS”—browser as operating system (at least as far as the user is concerned).

Big difference. Chrome's parent, Google, is forever collecting all information, looking for a way to monetize it. Mozilla has not shown that inclination. I stay away from Chrome, Android, Google Apps, etc. for that reason. I wish there were adequate substitutes for YouTube and Google Maps.

[Paradox]

The market could use some competition. Android is an ersatz iOS. Windows Phone looks interesting, and now this. It is good to have alternatives.

[jjsheridan5]

The maturity of HTML5 may provide the difference here. I remember experimenting with XUL as an app framework (not as an extension framework), and it was obvious that the browser as operating system theme wasn’t ready for prime time. HTML5 could easily provide the foundation for this transition to occur, with the easy interaction between host machine and server (removing any need for AJAX or similar methods), combined with the fact that mobile devices are the central focus of most end-user software development.

I fully expect HTML5 to be the app and web framework of the future, and push most of what we think of as OS’s to the trash bin. The question is when.

[Vendome]

I’m down with that...

[StAnDeliver]

"I like this."

Ditto.

[ShadowAce]

[martin_fierro]

Intredasting!

[Betis70]

Looks interesting, but I wish Firefox/Mozilla would make their web browser stable. I haven’t used it since they forced me to switch to a newer version (it is now on FF14, but I swear it was 3 just a few months ago). Buggy, slow, and just downright frustrating, the exact opposite of why I started using Firefox to begin with.