Mozilla, the company best known for one of the most popular web browsers worldwide, Firefox, is planning to unleash their first smartphone on the market before the end of 2012. Initially expected to launch in Brazil, with talk of the device subsequently making its way to Germany followed by the rest of Europe.
The BBC is reporting the smartphone will be running: Boot To Gecko (B2G) an open source Linux-based mobile OS (much like Google’s Android OS) which Mozilla has had in development since July last year. The unique approach the company have taken with B2G is to effectively make every facet of the UI and user-experience webpages. Apps are built using HTML 5 along with CSS and Javascript commands, falling in line with the company’s tendency to strictly adhere to web standards.
The advantage of this webpage based OS is that app development and compatibility between devices will be far easy to maintain. The OS has already been demoed on modified Android devices, although the final launch device will be entirely stand alone.
Brazilian carrier Telefonica Vivo will be the first to offer the B2G Mozilla phone, but its creators are already said to be in talks with Deutsche Telekom (parent company of T-Mobile) which could potentially lead to European release as well.
Final specs and release dates are still non-existent, but Telefonica stated that the device should come to their Brazilian network by the end of 2012.
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