Report: ZTE to bring Firefox OS to Europe

Firefox OS's default icon layout The Chinese phone maker ZTE says that it is working with an unnamed European wireless carrier to bring smartphones based on Mozilla's Firefox OS to the market this year. According to the Bloomberg report, Cheng Lixin, the CEO of ZTE's US business revealed the plan during an interview at CES, the consumer electronics show taking place in Las Vegas.

ZTE is China's second largest phone maker and is apparently looking to reduce its reliance on Google's Android. Cheng also said that the company is closely monitoring the mobile phone ecosystem and how it evolves and says that if consumer studies support the proposition, it may also launch a Firefox OS phone in the US this year too. Cheng did not say which European markets the company was considering. Until recently, the only public plans for Firefox OS were for a launch of ZTE-built devices in a South American market with Telefonica.

As would be expected, Firefox OS includes a mobile web browser Mozilla has been working with Deutsche Telekom, Sprint Nextel, Telefonica and others as part of its development work to create the Firefox OS web-centric smartphone which uses web technologies for all parts of its user interface and application ecosystem. The project began life as "Boot to Gecko" in July 2011 and, after an appearance at 2012's Mobile World Congress in early 2012, was renamed Firefox OS in July 2012.

A simulator of the HTML5 and JavaScript phone operating system is available as an add-on to Firefox. Mozilla's Johnathan Nightingale said in December that "2013 will be the year when the world can see and hold and try a real device powered only by the power of the Web".

(djwm)