Posted on 02/25/2013 11:37:55 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BARCELONA, Spain--Mozilla formally launched its Firefox OS here ahead of the start of Mobile World Congress. However, the smartphone platform is focusing its attention on emerging markets and will likely not launch in the U.S. market until 2014.
Mozilla, best known for its Firefox browser, said the first Firefox OS devices will be available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela, and that additional markets will be announced soon. The platform seems clearly aimed at emerging markets, and Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs said the platform likely will not hit the U.S. market until 2014.
Mozilla said 17 operators have so far committed to launching Firefox OS devices, including Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Whampoa's Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, TMN and VimpelCom. Telstra indicated it is open to the initiative. Further, Mozilla said that TCL's Alcatel brand, LG Electronics and ZTE will build the first Firefox OS devices, with Huawei to follow later this year. More handset makers will likely be added in the future. All of the devices will run on Qualcomm's (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon processors.
Kovacs said that Mozilla wants to give consumers more operating system choices than what currently exists, "That's a broken model and it needs to change," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at fiercewireless.com ...
By Aaron Souppouris on February 24, 2013 06:46 am
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Ericsson, AT&T, and Mozilla have announced WebPhone, a new browser-based platform that will tightly integrate phone services with your computer. Through the platform, users will be able to make video and voice calls, receive and send text and media messages, and use other services usually solely available through a mobile phone.
AT&T-Mozilla “WebPhone” gives a glimpse of the dumb pipe future
by Peter Bright - Feb 24 2013, 3:00am PST
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By combining Firefox's new WebRTC support, Ericsson's Web Communication Gateway, and AT&T's API Platform, Mozilla has demonstrated calls, text messages, and video calls all being made from within the browser. It's all in a proof-of-concept application AT&T calls WebPhone, and Mozilla will demonstrate WebPhone next week at the Mobile World Congress conference.
With the right phone operator support, the plugin-free technology can potentially offer a full range of telephony services through the browser. This decouples traditional phone services from the phone itself, potentially enabling access to the phone and text messages from anywhere with an Internet connection and WebRTC-enabled browser. The demo is currently limited in scope, with AT&T planning to roll out an alpha version of the full API "in the near future."
AT&T describes WebPhone as a "vision for the future of seamlessly integrated communication." More than that, however, it's a vision for the network operator as dumb pipe provider. Put that browser on a phone—perhaps one running Firefox OS—and you can do away with the voice connection entirely. Just place everything, voice and data alike, over the data connection.
I wish they would develop a phone that had the operating system on a card similar to a SIM card. You could try different systems without having to buy a new phone.
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