Firefox OS
The world of mobile phones is expanding in many fields and attracting many companies. Within this expansion, mobile platforms are the most attractive which influencing not only developers, but also hardware manufacturers. Among these platforms Android and iOS have got the first and second rankings as the most frequently used operating systems and windows phone 8 and blackberry 10 are fighting for the third grade. There are also some new platforms on the way: Samsung Tizen, Ubuntu, and Firefox OS from Mozilla.


General Information about Firefox OS
Hearing the name Firefox for professionals or even normal users will instantly remind the famous internet browser; a browser destined to change the taste of internet for users. In the beginning Mozilla aimed at mobile platforms with a project called Boot to Gecko. The project expanded and gave birth to Gecko processing engine which used in many projects, namely Firefox OS. It’s in fact Linux core and the Gecko processing engine together which builds up the Mozilla’s operating system. The OS is all based on web standards: HTML 5, CSS, XUL, and JavaScript. Therefore it could be said that the Firefox operating system is an internet based OS, just like Google’s Chrome, meaning everything is done via internet from messaging to phone callings.

Features
  • The OS does not require any powerful hardware requisites as the applications run on a web based environment, resulting in a cheaper device. The minimum hardware requirements is: A single core ARMV6 architecture processor with 800 MHz of frequency, 256 MB of RAM, touch screen display with QVGA resolution and an Adreno 200 as the GPU. Also due to the lightness of the OS, the boot will take much less time than Android.
  • Like the Linux, The Firefox OS is also an open source platform. Despite Android is also open source, it has some restrictions. I.e. Google Play has many restrictions and limitations which prevents normal users from building and publishing applications easily. But in the Firefox Marketplace, everyone is free to build and develop any kind of applications and to share them anywhere.
  • Vast customizing options in Firefox operating system makes anyone with brief knowledge of web languages capable of developing new applications or editing the structures of other ones. This simply means that no more roots are required anymore!  
  • Web standard environment makes the FOS apps to be portable. Any HTML 5 b ased application could be easily installed not only on FOS, but also in other platforms like Android or iOS.
  • As mentioned earlier, FOS is a web based platform. Hence it makes a huge evolution and takes a great step towards cloud computing.
Challenges
  • Despite its low hardware requisites and a price less than 100$ for a minimum hardware requirements, It’s an internet based platform after all and a lot of network bandwidth is needed to accomplish tasks.
  • Due to the many restrictions applied in App Store and Google Play they are almost a relatively safe place. But since anyone could publish any kinds of applications to the Firefox Marketplace, there exist always the risk of spreading bad-wares!
  • Web applications are not as powerful and as flexible as Native applications. Although Gartner believes web applications based on HTML 5 could compete the Native apps before 2015.
  • Firefox OS requires an internet with huge amount of bandwidth to operate. So that it would be inefficient for countries with low speed internet connection or for people with insufficient incomings.
Devices with FOS

Many manufacturers have volunteered for using FOS on their devices: LG, Alcatel, Huawei, ZTE are some them. Although Samsung seems to be not compliant with this platform. Many mobile operators have also claimed to participate in supporting such OS as of its high incomings via selling internet data.

Two smartphones are already announced with this platform. Alcatel One Touch Fire and ZTE Open both having: Single core processor with 1 GH of frequency, 256 MB of RAM, 3.5” capacitive touch screen with 320 x 480 pixel resolution and a camera of 3.2 MP.

Conclusion

At first glance it seems Firefox OS is here to win the lower level smartphones market. But according to Mozilla’s principals Firefox comes to change the game of smartphones: a new innovation in mobile platforms.

As of now, nothing is certain about the future of FOS or how users would treat and welcome such operating system. We have to wait and see, time would reveal everything!

Why Don't you share your ideas about this new OS on the Android Widget Center official Facebook Page? (Firefox OS review)