SUMMARY
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MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will be one of the first countries in the world to get the first smartphone that runs the newly announced Firefox OS – the world’s first fully open mobile platform.
Mozilla made the announcement during its Firefox OS event at the Mobile World Congress Sunday, February 24 (Feb 25 in Manila) saying it was partnering with 18 telecom operations from around the world. In the Philippines Firefox will be partnering with Smart.
ZTE and Alcatel will manufacturer the worlds first two Firefox OS phones, the ZTE Open and the Alcatel One Touch Fire. Other manufcaturers being tapped to be among the first handset providers are Huawei and LG.
Firefox, is one of the most popular Internet Browsers in the world – and one of the first that you could cuztomize and personalize. The Firefox smartphone operating system is an extension of that same experience and is intended to “unlock the web as a mobile development platform.”
Firefox OS smartphones will run applications developed using HTML 5.
Among the initial apps that will be available for the new mobile OS are Facebook, Twitter, and Cut The Rope. These apps will be available on the FireFox marketplace but Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs says apps won’t be distributed in just one app store, “we don’t believe there should be one or two companies that approve the apps you and I engage with.”
The launch of the Firefox OS comes as part of its plan to free the web.
According to Kovacs their, “goal is to level the playing field and usher in an explosion of content and services that will meet the diverse needs of the next two billion people online.”
During his speech at the Firefox OS event at the Hotel Arts in Barcelo, Kovacs was quoted using the word “high-volume smartphones” hinting that Firefox OS smartphones are targetted at the low end market.
Smart executive vice president and wireless consumer division head Emmanuel Lorenzana says, “Firefox’s entry to the mobile phone market will bring customer experience to another level with lower cost barrier to ownership and more choices in terms of devices and mobile apps. This will also foster a healthier and more competitive developer community. We’re very keen to see a vibrant ecosystem based on HTML5 technology such as Firefox OS.”
Other operators that will distribute the first wave of Firefox devices are América Móvil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, TMN and VimpelCom.
The first wave of Firefox OS smartphone are expected to be available in key markets by summer of 2013. – Rappler.com
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