Mozilla is all set to challenge Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s dominance in the smartphone operating system market by rolling out a mobile operating system in July this year. The new operating system will be unveiled after winning the support of 13 wireless service providers across the world including Spain’s Telefonica S.A. (NYSE:TEF) (MCE:TEF), China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited (NYSE:CHU) and America Movil SAB de CV (NYSE:AMX) (NASDAQ:AMOV).
Mozilla, maker of the popular firefox browser, believes firmly that it is possible to compete with Apple’s iOS and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android, which together make up the operating systems of almost all mobile devices on the planet.
The new software will be based on open web standards and will be able to run on devices with much less hardware requirements than today’s range of Smartphones, according to Mozilla.
“There’s a strategic imperative for the industry to have another OS that really is open and supports choice and competition,” said Mozilla’s senior vice president of products, Jay Sullivan.
Since the operating system from Firefox will be open source and web based, third party developers will be able to sell mobile applications without the need to share revenue with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).
The Firefox maker plans to unveil some of the first hardware device running on its software at the Mobile World Congress, which is to be held in Barcelona this week. Brands like South Korea’s LG, China’s ZTE and Huawei are amongst the big brands, which have agreed to make their devices based on the Firefox OS.
The Firefox Operating System will use HTML5 standard, which contrary to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Apple’s operating system are built on proprietary technology. This makes the fact very clear that anyone who knows web programming can create Firefox OS apps.
Now the big question remains that whether a smartphone, which sits on web standards, will be able to give the kind of performance customers are expecting from it. Recently, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) restrained itself from the use of HTML5 to develop its iPhone app, and Mark Zuckerberg went on saying that the decision to use HTML5 for its app was one of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s “Biggest mistakes” as the technology failed at delivering the expected results.
The company will be initially looking to target emerging economies in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia, where a major chunk of the population still stick to older phone models and have yet to upgrade to more expensive smartphones that come with specifications like touch screens and high speed internet connections.
The devices will be available this summer in Brazil, Columbia, Poland, Venezuela, Serbia and Spain.
