Sony to make Firefox OS phone
Sony committed to making at least one Firefox OS phone and this may show the platform is gaining steam
In another sign that the Firefox OS may be picking up steam, Sony announced that it will be supporting Mozilla's mobile platform and we can look forward to its first phone with Firefox OS in 2014.
Sony said at Mobile World Congress 2013 that it is already working on a Firefox OS phone. Being built on open source software and based on HTML5, the Firefox OS will offer a ton of flexibility for Sony to put its unique imprint on the platform.
Now that Sony is fully in control of its mobile division, the company has said it will be integrating mobile capabilities into all of its products. So far, this has meant that tablets like the Xperia Z can be used to control Sony's televisions.
The mobile market hasn't been that kind to Sony though, as it has made a major bet on Android that isn't guaranteed to pay off. It has been able to make some interesting devices but it hasn't proven that it can beat the likes of Samsung in the Android space.
As for Mozilla's platform, this is just another good sign for it. It recently announced that we'll see phones running Firefox OS from the likes of Huawei, ZTE, LG, Alcatel and now it adds Sony.
In our preview of Firefox OS, we thought the platform had promise but still felt a little underbaked. That's understandable considering it's not due to hit until later in the year but we would have loved a bit more "wow" factor out of the gates. Still, we'll be keeping a close watch on this moving forward.
