Mozilla to launch mobile OS

Firefox creator working on operating system for smartphones and tablets

Firefox web browser creator Mozilla is creating a new open-source operating system (OS) for mobile phones and tablet devices.

With consumerisation of technology a growing trend in enterprises, CIOs must support an increasing number of devices and operating systems brought into the workplace by employees, and Mozilla's OS will be another one that requires support from the IT department.

The open-source developers are creating a project called 'Boot to Gecko' (B2G), which aims to build a complete, standalone operating system.

The team of developers said the project is in its infancy and will require work in a number of areas, such as the creation of new web application program interfaces (APIs).

"We're talking about it now because we want expertise from all over Mozilla - and from people who aren't yet part of Mozilla - to inform and build the project we're outlining here," the Mozilla team wrote on its Wiki page.

The team added that all of the work on the OS will be done in the open and Mozilla will release the source code as it is being developed.

The OS will face competition from Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and RIM's QNX mobile operating systems.