Mozilla promises cheaper smartphones with new iOS

Mozilla, which brought the free web browser Firefox to the loads, now desires to do an analogous for mobile users, with a brand new open source operating system which can drastically slash smartphone prices.

The non-profit group's so-called Boot to Gecko project will go after Google's Android or Apple's iOS, to create another which might generate smartphones which are "10 times cheaper" than an iPhone while offering similar experiences to these running on other platforms.

"We wish to pioneer a class," Brendan Eich, who's Mozilla's chief technology officer, told AFP on the Mobile World Congress trade extravaganza in Barcelona.

"We see the mobile world recreating the wall of gardens within the 1990s that AOL had," lamented Eich, bearing on restrictions imposed by the net provider twenty years ago.

Mozilla therefore desires to "disrupt" the closed system, and open it as much as competition for greater innovation.

The postulate is for a platform it's completely reliant on the net, meaning that every one of the phones capabilities, including calls, messaging, and perusing functions, can be web-based.

Being on the internet removes the desire for far of the intermediary software that requires large memory or speedy processors - either one of which might be expensive.

Consequently, it could cut costs dramatically.

The gang has partnered with Telefonica at the project, with the Spanish giant aiming to ship phones running at the new OS this year.

For Carlos Domingo, Telefonica Digital director of product development, the improvement spells massive opportunities in Latin America, where smartphones aren't catching on through their prohibitive prices.

a brand new phone at the Mozilla platform, may be "greater than 10 times cheaper" than an iPhone, Domingo told AFP.

It will probably also be competitive in comparison to the least expensive phone on Finnish giant Nokia's Lumia line, which runs at the Windows platform and may begin shipping this year at 189 euros.

"We will probably do two to a few times cheaper than that," said Domingo, who aims to have the phones commercialised in six to 8 months.

Brazil is a regular audience for Telefonica as it has 75 per cent mobile penetration rate, but just five per cent on smartphones.

Nevertheless, Mozilla will face stiff challenges from Android and Apple, the runaway smartphone leaders.

Microsoft too, may be launching its new Windows 8 on the Mobile World Congress on Thursday, local time, because it seeks to claw back some market share within the rapidly growing smartphone industry.

But Eich, who invented the favored programming language JavaScript, believes the hot system could hold its own against competitors.

"In the event you believe that iOS and Android have about 70 or 80 per cent of the market and in case you believe that the rest 20 per cent seriously is not fragmented, ...we'd hope to be 80 per cent of that 20 per cent," he said.

"It's possible that a number of our partners agree - that by making the proper entry points, we will be able to actually achieve high volume growth and be that platform," he added.

And if the project succeeds, other regions may also benefit, as like any open source projects, it is going to be open for sharing.

Firefox debuted in 2004 as an innovative, communally crafted open-source browser released as an choice to Internet Explorer.

- AFP