Mobile World Congress (MWC) is considered the world’s largest show regarding mobile technology. This massive event includes the launches of most of the mobile products people will see in stores throughout the year.
This year’s MWC was a special occasion for Mozilla, the company behind one of the world’s most-used internet browsers, Firefox, because they showed the entire world their new proposal for the mobile market: Firefox OS.
This new bet that Mozilla is turning into the market is an open source operative system (OS) for tablets and smart phones, based on Linux. One of the interesting facts that characterizes this OS is its lack of Adobe Flash, commonly used in other phones. In order to avoid using Flash, Mozilla has moved forward into the future of smartphones, integrating HTML5 into the programming of their OS.
Mozilla is launching this operative system in the right spot to compete against three big mobile market owners: Google, Apple and Microsoft. The principal smartphones existing in the world are running Android or iOS, and Windows 8 is running up into the top three, leaving obsolete operative systems, such as Blackberry OS and Symbian, behind.
Mozilla’s Bet
Regarding the price of the phones and the preference of the market, Mozilla has focused its strategy into four points of view:
“A level playing field against other OS and marketplace providers.” Firefox Marketplace actually holds enough applications to compete with marketplaces such as Play Store and iTunes App Store.
“Greater participation in the value chain,” offering a good operative system in entry level smartphones.
“Ownership and control over relationships with customers.” This point is actually really innovative because of the idea that Mozilla would interact directly with the customers in order to make their experience better.
“Customized phones that meet the specific needs of various target markets.” Mozilla has loaded this OS into different phones from different manufacturers. This will give the chance to people to choose a good phone among a variety of Mozilla OS.
Although Mozilla’s ideas are strong, they will have to work hard at targeting new users, as most of the market is owned by other operating systems, such as Android and iOS.
The Mozilla Phone: The New Experience
The idea of having a new operative system does not only represent a big opportunity for Mozilla, but also for companies who aren’t preferred for other OS. This is the case of bug manufacturers such as ZTE and Alcatel.
Also, Sony Corporation announced its support into Mozilla’s odyssey into the mobile world. “At Sony Mobile, we continue to evaluate innovative technologies that can help deliver the premium user experiences that Sony’s consumers expect,” Bob Ishida, deputy chief executive officer and head of Products Business Group at Sony Mobile Communications, says. “Our engineers are now working with Firefox OS Mobile and HTML5, evolving technologies which show great potential.” It is likely that the Sony Xperia E, a low-end smartphone, could dramatically change its sales rate by adding this new OS.
This new OS is set up, and the phones are created. Only time will tell how users receive this new system into the mobile world.