Mockup images of Mozilla's Firefox OS.

As if there weren’t enough players in the mobile operating system market, Mozilla has just announced that their upcoming web based OS, now called Firefox OS, is set to launch as as soon as early next year. Reportedly, Mozilla has already nabbed Deutsche Telekom, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Telenor as carriers on board, with ZTE and TCL Communication Technology being named as launching at least one handset each.

Firefox OS is based off of the industry web standards HTML5, and is going to be marketed as a low-priced alternative to Android and iOS. It remains to be seen how the OS will be supported by carriers and manufacturers over here in the US of A, or how developers will take to the OS (in 2012, developer support is key to a successful platform). Mozilla is, of course, a large company willing to throw its influence around to make sure this is a hit, so I’d expect at least decent support once phones start to trickle out onto the marketplace.

Via: Engadget
Source: AllThingsD