MWC 2013 Video: Why Carriers Love Firefox OS

On Sunday, Mozilla announced that it had managed to sign up 18 network operators to try one of the phones running its Firefox OS. Apparently this number has grown already, and there are now 19 adventurous carriers willing to give it a try.

Our colleagues from Gizmodo Germany have interviewed Christian Heilmann, principal developer evangelist at Mozilla, to find out more about the OS and what makes it different from market leaders Android and iOS.

Born free

Announced in 2012, Firefox OS (previously known as Boot to Gecko) is an open source operating system for phones and tablets. According to Heilmann, it looks “like any other operating system for a mobile device”, except it is made entirely in HTML5.

Mozilla has just opened the Firefox Marketplace to mobile users, and the HTML5 apps on offer already include such favourites as Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, Box, Nokia HERE and Pulse News.

The system was designed primarily for developing markets, with its very basic hardware requirements and tools to minimise expenses related to data consumption. First countries to try Firefox OS include Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela, with phones made by ZTE, Alcatel and LG.

Heilmann says the carriers like the system because it enables carrier billing for apps, and doesn’t tie them up with senseless Terms and Conditions.

To find out more, watch the video below:

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