While Microsoft, Nokia and their carrier partners are hard at work promoting Windows 8 as a challenger to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, a global group of device makers and carriers are more quietly preparing to launch smartphones that run Mozilla’s Firefox operating system. China’s ZTE Corp. says that by the first quarter of 2013 it will be shipping smartphones based on an operating system it developed with Mozilla. The handset maker is apparently hedging its bets by working Microsoft as well; it plans to launch a Windows 8 device late this year or early in 2013.
Manufacturers and mobile operators are eager to reduce their dependence on Google’s Android operating system, which is running on more than two thirds of the smartphones shipped in the second quarter. Handset makers know that having more than one OS to choose from gives them more leverage with Google, and they have been even more interested in competitors to Android in the wake of a California court’s finding that Android infringes on certain Apple patents.
Firefox OS is an HTML-5 based operating system, and Mozilla says that as such it is easily accessible to application developers. Speaking last spring at CTIA 2012, Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs said “There are 3 million HTML developers around the world. It is the language that they are speaking and when asked to choose, they choose HTML 5. HTML 5 is optimized for what the web has become today: apps, video, music, and immersive experiences.”
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ZTE is just one of several companies that has announced plans to develop and/or market Firefox OS devices; others include Sprint Nextel, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Smart, Telenor, Telecom Italia, ZTE and TCL.
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