Mozilla intends to team up with phone makers to launch sub-USD 50 smartphones running the Firefox operating system for mobile devices, announced the company’s senior vice president for mobile devices, Li Gong, at Computex. The Wall Street Journal reports that Mozilla is targeting the next 2 billion low-cost smartphones for first-time users in emerging markets. The company aims eventually to capture a 10 percent share of the world smartphone market.
Firefox’s manufacturing partner Foxconn said it was developing over five devices using Firefox OS, including smartphones, TVs and large display boards. Gong expects more low-cost reference designs to emerge from Foxconn and Chinese chip designer Spreadtrum. When it previewed Firefox OS in February, Mozilla said that 18 major telecom operators had expressed support, including China Telecom. Gong said ZTE and TCL are expected to introduce Firefox smartphones in Latin America this summer.
