The two leading telecom groups in Latin America, América Móvil and Telefónica, are preparing to launch handsets featuring the Firefox OS. The companies released launch details at the Mobile World Congress (MWC—check out all pieces) in Barcelona this week.
The Spanish group Telefónica said their handsets will go on sale in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela in mid-2013 – the same time that the handsets will be launched in Spain. Further launches are planned in both Europe and Latin America in late 2013 and 2014.
The carrier claims that consumers will have a choice of competitively priced devices, enabling them to have a compelling and affordable Internet experience. Telefónica is also in discussions with Huawei and other manufacturers to see how the Firefox OS can be extended into even more devices.
América Móvil, contolled by billionaire Carlos Slim, is on the same path and will release Firefox OS cell phones.
Since these mobile devices are expected to cost about $100, the companies hope they will help boost revenue and profit. In the Latin American region, the high price of smartphones has been a barrier to widespread adoption.
Latin America is “the highest growing Internet society in the world,” Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs told Bloomberg. “Telefonica and América Móvil are very important.”
The first Firefox OS handsets to be released in these markets will be manufactured by Alcatel One Touch, LG and ZTE, featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor.
The Firefox OS plans were released last year, when a global group of device makers and carriers quietly prepared to launch smartphones that run Mozilla’s Firefox operating system. At the time, ZTE said that it expected to start shipping smartphones based on an operating system it developed with Mozilla by the first quarter of 2013.
With these launches, Telefónica and América Móvil will join a group of 16 other mobile operators that support the Firefox OS: China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telenor, Telstra, TMN and VimpelCom.
