Mozilla announced new phones running its Firefox operating system and plans to bring more low-cost and varied devices to the market. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, its partners unveiled the latest Firefox phones, including the ZTE Open C and Open II and the Alcatel OneTouch Fire C, Fire E, Fire S and Fire 7 tablet. These all run Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.
In addition, Mozilla said it's working with Spreadtrum on a processor to support Firefox smartphones at just USD 25. Spreadtrum will demo in Barcelona the SC6821 chipset and WCDMA and EDGE reference designs, built to bring low-cost Firefox phones to new markets. The chipset supports smartphones with 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreens, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM and camera functions, the phone and browser features of Firefox OS and access to web and HTML5 applications, at prices similar to much more minimally featured budget feature phones, the company said. Spreadtrum plans to work with Mozilla to integrate Firefox across its full range of chipsets.
Mozilla said operators such as Telenor, Telkomsel and Indosat, and partners such as Polytron, T2Mobile and Thundersoft are expressing interest in the low-cost platform. The Indonesian operators are the latest to join the Firefox open web initiative, and Mozilla announced agreements with existing partners Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom to bring Firefox phones to new markets this year.
Firefox devices are already on sale in 15 markets with four operators and handsets from three manufacturers. In 2014, Telefonica will start selling Firefox OS phones in eight new countries (Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama), and Deutsche Telekom will bring the phones to four new markets (Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro). The German operator is also working with Mozilla to develop new privacy features for Firefox phones, responding to growing public concerns in Germany over unauthorised access to private communications.
Mozilla said sales of Firefox phones have exceeded expectations and it's receiving strong interest from manufacturers looking to adopt the OS. Amid plans to launch more varied devices and user experiences in 2014, Mozilla introduced a new self-service partner portal to help manufacturers bring devices more quickly to market. The portal offers all the software development resources as well as marketing support.
The company also plans to add new features to the next version of the Firefox OS to support new kinds of devices. This will include more customisation options for operators and manufacturers, such as homescreens and rungtones; support for LTE; a new universal search function available from any screen or app; improved navigation to support multi-tasking; new ways of sharing content and updating software with NFC support; and the introduction of Firefox Accounts to port a user's settings and data across devices.
For developers, Mozilla announced a new reference phone, the Firefox OS Flame with 4.5-inch screen and dual-core processor, to test new apps and features with various memory configurations. It also extended its tablet developers programme to encourage more apps specifically for larger screens. Foxconn is the first partner in its tablet programme, and Via has introduced a 7-inch reference tablet for the programme. In addition, PhoneGap developers will now have tools for porting their apps to Firefox, and Mozilla offers new web APIs aimed at narrowing the differences between native and web apps.
