Firefox OS Hits The Ground Running With Phones From Telefonica, T-Mobile, Firefox Marketplace For Apps; 18 Carriers In All Signed Up For Mozilla’s Open Web Effort

Firefox OS, the new, HTML5-friendly mobile OS from Mozilla, is today taking a big step forward in its strategy to become a viable third player in the smartphone landscape currently dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Mozilla is announcing that 18 carriers have now committed to its Open Web HTML5 device push; the launch of the Firefox Marketplace app store to aggregate content for the platform; and some of the first low-cost handsets coming out of its carrier partnerships that will be coming out this summer.

Telefonica — whose ZTE-made handset is pictured here — will sell its first Firefox-powered phones in Latin America and Spain; and Deutsche Telekom will debut its handsets in Poland before expanding to other markets in Eastern Europe. Other operators announcing handsets today include Latin American powerhouse America Movil (starting first in its home market of Mexico) and Norway’s Telenor, which has operations across Eastern Europe and Asia, including Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The idea is that carriers may have a better opportunity in markets with lower overall smartphone penetration, and a customer base interested in low-cost handsets (versus premium devices like the iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy device).