Mozilla’s actually far along with the development of its own mobile OS, that will supposedly be shown in Q1 2012 in a special event. The first time I’ve heard of this initiative it was back in July, when the platform was called Boot to Gecko or B2G. Basically, we’re dealing with Android here, with a different UI.
The concept of this OS borrows heavily from Palm’s webOS, that’s close to cease existence soon. What you see below is a mockup of the way the interface of the platform is supposed to look. This UI bears the name of Gaia and the project involves a former Google London intern, Ben Francis. Q1 2012 is when we’ll get solid info and maybe a demo of the platform, that will be released to the market in the first half of next year. Installing the software will be similar to applying a custom Android ROM, according to sources close to the matter.
It’s hard to imagine that an OS with Android at its core will get any special treatment or solid market share, so there’s got to be a special selling point here. Maybe this software will sold to a certain phone maker for extra development… Also, considering its web-based orientation, it will probably rely on the cloud a lot. Meanwhile, there’s talk about Ubuntu getting a smartphone OS by 2014…
