Mozilla OS Phone Due Late 2012?

The first smartphones running Mozilla’s open source operating system are set to be released in late 2012, according to a report.

A Brazilian technology blog claimed a device running ‘Boot to Gecko’ will appear on Telefonica’s Brazilian Vivio network, but there is no word on which manufacturer has signed up to produce the phone.

Deep Cover Gecko

Telefonica Vivio, which has 90 million customers in the country, said it will cost the same as other similar spec feature phones and although no specific release date was given, it should come out by the end of 2012 or in early 2013.

Gary Kovacs, CEO of Mozilla, told a press conference in Sao Paulo that openness would change the way that smartphone apps operate.

Boot to Gecko was first announced in July 2011 with the aim of being a mobile operating system for the open web in a similar fashion to how Mozilla’s Firefox browser adheres to the official standards for writing and viewing web pages. Gecko is the name given to Mozilla’s layout engine.

This would mean that apps act more like webpages, based on HTML5, and would be able to share data and links. Mozilla is also rumoured to be preparing its own app store and a smartphone tied to the release of Boot to Gecko.

Mozilla released Firefox 11 last month, adding a number of technical improvements, interface achievements and expanded synchronisation options. There were fears that it might not have been released after a security flaw was found during a hacking competition.

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