Mozilla’s new Firefox OS can certainly be seen as an alternative to Android. And yet Mozilla won’t go the Google way, at least not when it comes to own-branded devices.
In an interview with DigiTimes, Li Gong, SVP of Mobile Devices and President of Mozilla’s Asia Operations, said that the company doesn’t plan to collaborate with ODMs for making and selling own-branded Firefox OS smarthpones. If there will be Mozilla-branded smartphones, these “would be primarily used as reference models rather than for large-scale sale.”
For the beginning, customers will be able to buy only cheap, low-end Firefox OS handsets like the ZTE Open andAlcatel OneTouch Fire (made by TCL) – both should be available in some markets starting the next few months.
Li Gong has reconfirmed that Huawei, LG and Sony are also going to launch Firefox smartphones, although it’s still not clear exactly when it will happen.
As for Samsung and HTC, they don’t seem to be interested in Firefox OS. And Samsung obviously has no reason to be, since its Android devices are selling extremely well, and Tizen-based smartphones are on their way. Still, Li Gong mentions that “Mozilla has received increasing inquiries about the operating system from vendors” afterGoogle bought Motorola.
All in all, it’s too early to even try to predict what Mozilla will manage to do with Firefox OS. But we’ll live and see.
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