Firefox gets into the smartphone business

A new smartphone operatingsystem is joining the fray. Mozilla released a phone running its new Firefox OS in Spain on Monday, joining leading mobile operating systems Android and iOS, aswell as smaller players Windows Phone and Blackberry. The ZTE Open and Alcatel OneTouch Fire are very basic phones with 3.5-inch screens, entry-level specs and appealingly low price tags. Telefonica will sell the ZTE Open in Spain starting July 2 for 69 euros, or about $90. Nonprofit company Mozilla istrying to shake up the typical closed app ecosystems Firefox OS. Builtusing open Web standards, it will appeal to the estimated 8 million Web developers who can jump right in and start creating HTML 5 apps for the phones. There is no timeline for when the phone will come to the United States. For now, Mozilla is focusing on emerging markets such as Spain, Poland, Colombia, Venezuela and eventually Brazil, where an iPhone is prohibitively expensive for most people. "For many of the users, thiswill be the first smartphone they would purchase," said Chris Lee, who heads the product team for Firefox OS. Firefox OS is rolling out in locations where significant portions of the population are still using feature phones. Multiyear service contracts that can cut the cost of a smartphone aren't as common, and expensive high-end handsets such as the iPhone or Galaxy S-series are out of reach. Cheap Android devices are available, but at an event inSan Francisco announcing the release, Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich pointed out that most of those are running Gingerbread, an old version of the Android OS. Eich also said the company was realistic about its goals. "We are not aiming high andcrashing into fortress Apple and fortress Google," said Eich Designwise, the Firefox OS keeps it incredibly simple and intuitive to appeal to new smartphone users. The current home screen is mostsimilar to the iPhone, with a four-by-four grid of icons and a dock for the most-used apps along the bottom of the screen. Lee says this version is just a starting point. The company hopes developers will create custom interfacesfor the devices that mimic what people love about Android or Windows Phone or even new takes on the usual smartphone screens. Firefox OS already has a few of the most popular apps, including Twitter and Facebook, as well as a mapsapp powered by Nokia Here. The usual built-in phone features are here for making phone calls, texting and browsing the Web. New HTML 5 apps will be available in the Mozilla Marketplace after they're screened for security, though Mozilla won't be kicking apps out for content. The first Firefox OS phonesare practical, not flashy, butthe company hopes the combination of low price and open ecosystem will make it a moderate hit. "Consumers don't really know or care too much about what's under the hood," said Eich. "They wantsomething that has a brand they trust ... a good price and something that satisfiesthem about the apps. That's a pretty short checklist." Source: http://cnnmobile.com/primary/fullarticle?topic=newsarticle&category=intlbusiness&pageSize=10&pageNo=1&articleId=urn:newsml:CNN.com:20130702:firefox-os-phone:1