ZTE to get behind Mozilla’s new Firefox OS for phones

ZTE to get behind Mozilla’s new Firefox OS for phonesAccording to a Bloomberg report, citing the information shared by ZTE's US chief Cheng Lixin at the CES 2013, ZTE has plans in place to bring Mozilla's brand new Firefox OS on to the handsets.

Going by an announcement by Cheng, ZTE intends using the Firefox OS in a forthcoming smartphone, which will initially be released - some time during the year 2013 - on yet-to-be-named European carriers. Thereafter, depending on the sales in Europe, the Firefox-based handset might also hit the US markets this year.

The announcement by Cheng marks a notable move by ZTE to bring Mozilla's Firefox OS to the smartphone market, especially since ZTE has thus far focused on developing budget smartphones which run either Google's Android OS or Microsoft's Windows OS.

Noting that ZTE is the first announced partner to bring Web browser expert Mozilla's new Firefox OS to the highly-competitive handset market, Cheng said that the move underscores that "ZTE is seeking partnerships to offer devices with the new operating system to reduce its reliance on Google Inc.'s Android."

However, despite the fact that ZTE has neither divulged the name nor the expected specifications of its Firefox-based budget smartphone, it is speculated that the handset will apparently not boast any high-end specs, particularly since Mozilla has revealed that the Firefox OS will, initially at least, chiefly target the emerging markets.