Today the smartphone world is essentially divided up between Apple and Google, much like Spain and Portugal divided up the known world in 15th century Europe. Right now, it’s not clear whether Nokia-Microsoft will become a viable third platform. Palm’s WebOS, though it has been open-sourced, is effectively dead and one could convincingly argue that Blackberry is dying as an OS.
Now Mozilla has emerged to challenge Apple but more specifically Android, with a new “truly open” mobile platform: Boot to Gecko (B2G). In many ways not unlike Google’s browser-based ChromeOS for PCs, it was formally announced in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress. Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica are on board:
This week Mozilla is previewing open Web apps and Mozilla Marketplace, enabling the creation and distribution of apps powered by open Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavasScript. We are also previewing Persona, the first identity system truly of the Web, including Browser ID. Each offering represents the latest tools available to developers and users to take control of their online lives. Since the beginning, it has been our mission as an organization to develop and bring about a completely open and standards-based Web as a platform for innovation. Mozilla’s latest innovations are being proposed to the W3C for standardization, helping us move the needle to advance the Web and make it a more people-centric experience for all.There are lots of questions about whether Mozilla can make this a viable platform; however the support of two global carriers lends immediate credibility to the initiative. It also shows that there’s an appetite for alternatives to Android, which was itself initially embraced as an alternative to the iPhone. Now Android is on its way to becoming the dominant smartphone platform. It was quickly embraced by carriers and handset OEMs who had no immediate response to the iPhone when it launched. Android became the de facto alternative, driving huge penetration and adoption. Now that Android is the dominant smartphone platform, demand is emerging for alternatives. B2G is one potential alternative, especially for lower-end handsets. There are, however, many questions about whether Mozilla will be able to make B2G a viable, alternate smartphone platform. Microsoft sees Windows Phone as the true third alternative; however there’s evidence of only modest Windows Phone success thus far (including the Nokia handsets). While there’s enormous momentum around iOS and Android the smartphone race is far from over and, especially at the lower end of the market, B2G could become an attractive alternative to Android.