Today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Mozilla demonstrated what it calls the breadth and growth of its Firefox OS open mobile ecosystem.
In one announcement, Mozilla raised the curtain on a plethora of new commercial Firefox OS devices and highlighted advancements and partnerships that will enable the platform to scale up as the year progresses.
In the year since MWC 2013, Mozilla says, Firefox OS devices have gone on sale in 15 markets with four global operators and handsets from three manufacturers.
Firefox OS will be expanding into important new markets in 2014. Telefonica will build on the list of countries where it’s selling Firefox OS phones, with eight more launching this year: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. Deutsche Telekom will also add four new markets: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia and Montenegro.
“In six short months, Firefox OS has more than established itself in the very markets it aimed to address,” says John Jackson, VP of Mobility Research at IDC. “Today’s announcements underscore the platform’s rapid maturation and growing ecosystem benefits. New products, tools, categories, partners, features, and extraordinarily compelling price points will reinforce Firefox OS’s momentum into 2014. IDC expects year-on-year Firefox OS volumes will grow by a factor of six times in the smartphone category alone.”
Mozilla today added that Firefox OS is also expanding to additional form factors, as partners and contributors work to optimize the software for TVs, tablets and other devices.
For example, in January, Panasonic announced a partnership with Mozilla to release next-generation smart TVs powered by Firefox OS.
