Firefox OS - alternative to Google Chrome

July 04, 2012

Browser - is the next operating system. This idea was born in Google and they created Chrome OS. And Mozilla thought that this it also can play this game and developed the mobile OS - Boot to Gecko. Yesterday this platform was renamed to Firefox OS, which marks the transformation of the simple browser into the cross-platform Operating System. Recall, Firefox OS is intended only for running web-applications (on HTML5) and allows to build very cheap smartphones and tablets due to the minimum requirements to hardware. How Firefox OS can compete with Chrome OS? It's very simple, because in the nearest years Google won't ditch Android and make a choice in favor of the Chrome OS for mobile devices. Mozilla doesn't have such problem and its way to the goal is clean.

Firefox OS has become very popular among mobile operators. Because first, the phones will be cheaper, and second - more traffic will be consumed. Telefonica, Sprint, Deutsche Telekom, Smart, Telecom Italia and Telenor are ready to offer their customers the Firefox-phones early next year. And Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Alcatel are ready to produce them.

However, it seams that Firefox OS - will never become really cross-platform in this world where every vendor seeks to build walls around its platform. Like Google, Mozilla will face restrictions for third-party browsers on iPhone/iPad. Microsoft's new ARM-tablet Surface also won't support third-party browsers. And Google is unlikely to welcome Firefox OS on its Android-devices.