Mozilla launched developer preview smartphones operating on Firefox OS

Mozilla smartphones using the Firefox OS will be available to developers by early February as the open source software giant plans to give competition to the leaders in mobile operating system, Apple and Google. The smartphones, which are named as Keon and Peak, are developer preview devices as Mozilla wants developers to become acquainted with Firefox OS.

The smartphones from Mozilla feature the new Firefox OS for mobile phones, which is reported to be built on open web standards. The company is known for its open source software as it already offers Firefox browser. There is no word on pricing of the two smartphones from Mozilla.

The released devices include two handsets, the 3.5-inch Keon and 4.3-inch Peak. Keon features a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor clocked at 1GHz, with 512MB of RAM. It also comprises of 4GB of storage with a 3-megapixel rear camera. The Peak features a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon chip and an 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front camera stepping things up.

The devices have been developed in a partnership with Geeksphone and Spanish carrier Telefonica, which has already confirmed that it will support the web-based Firefox OS on commercial devices expected in late 2013. Talking about the smartphones, the firm wrote on its developer blogging site, “Developer preview phones will help make the mobile web more accessible to more people. Developers are critical to the web and to Mozilla’s mission to make the web accessible to everyone.”

Mozilla Firefox OS release will be followed by BlackBerry 10 OS release on January 30 and the launch of Ubuntu mobile operating system in the near future. The important question, now is, do Apple and Google need to worry?