On July 1, Mozilla released the first two smartphones to carry its new operating system – Firefox OS: the ZTE Open and Alcatel One Touch Fire.
The two devices will soon be available through Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom. Telefonica announced that the ZTE Open will be offered in Spain starting on July 2 for 69 euros ($90).
The Firefox OS is an open-source system, intended to compete with Android for developer attention, and the experience is reportedly similar to using an Android device. It was developed using HTML5, the language of the Web, which Mozilla hopes will make it easier for third-party developers to produce apps. With HTML5 integrated into an open-source operating system, there’s a possibility that Firefox could catch on with that crowd, although it remains to be seen if the software has the performance or longevity to make a splash.
Mozilla hopes to conquer much of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America with Firefox OS — most of which are currently dominated by cheap Android devices.