ZTE to launch smartphone with Mozilla Firefox OS next year: Report

ZTE seems to be on track to launch its first Firefox OS smartphone next year. According to a report in WSJ, ZTE will release this phone in the first quarter. The Chinese manufacturer currently has Android and Windows Phone devices in its portfolio.

Wall Street Journal reports that this launch is the latest indication among smartphone makers to look beyond Google's Android and diversify their portfolios.

There are no details on the ZTE Firefox smartphone, as per a previous press release issued by Mozilla, the smartphone will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Several telecom operators including Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, and Telecom Italia have already pledged their support to the operating system. The first Firefox OS-powered devices are expected to launch commercially in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefonica's commercial brand, Vivo.

Given the patent war between Android and Apple, smartphone makers are increasingly looking for alternatives as they don't want to get stuck with only one operating system and legal problems originating because of it.

Originally announced in 2011, Firefox OS for mobile devices is built on Mozilla's "Boot to Gecko project," which aims to eliminate the need for apps to be built on platform-specific native APIs. Using HTML5, developers everywhere can write directly to the web.

Among other manufacturers TCL Communication Technology is also planning to launch Firefox OS devices under its Alcatel One Touch brand next year.

We are yet to see Firefox OS in its true form, but snippets of it have been leaked in the past including a recent leak that showed the app marketplace.

According to a roadmap given on Boot to Gecko project wiki, the developer team has already released four builds of the OS, but still there is no clear timing for the final build.