Mozilla, the creator of popular of web browser Firefox, has been working on an OS for mobile devices for roughly two years and finally the company officially launched its low-cost Firefox OS-based devices in stores on Tuesday, July 9th. The first batch of Firefox-based devices reached Telefonica in Spain last week. The Spanish firm has started selling the new devices for €69 ($88.80) from July 9th. Soon Firefox-based devices will also be launched in Poland, Venezuela, Columbia and many other countries, according to Mozilla.
Mozilla made the announcement through a post on its site in which the company shed light on the new Firefox-based devices along with offering up other details. In the full announcement the firm stated that:
“Almost two years ago, we announced Boot to Gecko (B2G) here on Mozilla Hacks. We discussed the aims of the project and the work we were planning to do. Today, all that work has paid off and we now have official Firefox OS devices in store!
Last week the first Firefox OS phones went out in stores in Madrid, Spain, for sale by Telefónica. These phones are a great example of a low-cost telephone built on Open Web Technologies.
It means that if you haven’t gotten started at looking how to build your apps or your content with HTML5 and Responsive Design, now is the time, to have the chance to be among the early options in a brand new market.
Coming to more countries
Telefonica’s launch in Spain was the first for Firefox OS, but Poland, Colombia and Venezuela also have upcoming launches soon. It doesn’t stop there, though, look out for more countries coming soon.
Open Web Apps
Firefox OS runs the web and has a web browser, but if you want to offer an app-like experience, get access to more hardware and APIs and more, building an Open Web App could be a perfect option for you.
Reuse your existing HTML5 skills and content and just package it up. We’ve outlined Open Web Apps and new possibilities in detail in previous articles:
– Getting started with Open Web Apps – why and how
– Introducing WebAPI
– Introducing Web Activities
The Firefox OS Simulator
Tool-wise, we believe the Firefox OS Simulator is a great option to quickly test your apps.
Version 4 is just about to be released – more details in the announcement this Thursday, July 11th – but the list of highlights include:
New Connect Button, to have a developer toolbox connected to your specific app(s)
Remote Style Editor, enable remote style editing
Hidden Feature: Shift + Ctrl/Cmd-R, refreshing the app and clearing persistent data (AppCache, localStorage, sessionStorage, and IndexedDB)
Updated Dashboard Design, reduced clutter and improved usability
Touch Events, integrating Gaia’s touch events simulation, so interacting with the Simulator using a mouse now generates real touch events
Introducing payments
As part of the Firefox OS offering, we have the Firefox Marketplace, where you can upload and share your apps. We are also happy to say that if you are interested in accepting payments for your app, this is the place!
They are described in the Payments page as part of the Developer Hub aimed at app developers, and we’ve also written about them here before in Building A Paid App For Firefox OS.
We have two kinds of payment options in the Firefox Marketplace:
– Purchase an app
– In-app payments”
Source: TNW, Hacks.Mozilla
Photo: Hacks.Mozilla
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