The Mobile Landscape Just Got a Little More Crowded
posted Sunday Feb 26, 2012 by Scott Ertz
We've known for a while now that Mozilla has been working on a new mobile operating system known as Boot2Gecko. What we didn't know, however, was how close to being complete they were. If rumors are true, it would appear that they are at least to the Developer Preview stage.
Before we get to the rumors, let's cover what Boot2Gecko is. This mobile operating system is both revolutionary and derivative, all at the same time. Its revolutionary in that it will be the most open OS in the mobile world, and it will also be able to run inside of any browser. While the fact that it will run in any browser might seem new, this is not the first mobile OS to be entirely based on web technologies (webOS). webOS, however, runs inside of a WebKit environment, whereas Boot2Gecko can run anywhere. Certainly an interesting concept.
However, will Boot2Gecko suffer the same fate as webOS, or will its starting out open help it avoid a slow, painful death? Hit the break to find out.
Reports are surging that LG is working with Mozilla to produce the world's first Boot2Gecko-powered handset. Now, it would appear that this handset is not designed to be a release device, but instead a developer device. This is not the first time we have seen a company do this; in fact, Mozilla is taking a page right out of Microsoft's book with this move. Microsoft teamed up with Samsung to produce a non-release Windows 8 Developer Preview tablet for their //build conference last year, as well as Samsung and LG building early Windows Phone developer handsets.
As the week goes on, and more details are announced about new handsets in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, we will probably find out more details about this project. Hopefully the rumors are true and we will see this developer device make it to the public soon. We are all looking forward to seeing what a device running a Mozilla-powered OS will be like.
Do you think Mozilla stands a chance in the market, or do you think innovation in the OS world is going to be ignored, the way webOS and BlackBerry's QNX platform seem to have been? Let us know in the comments.
