Mozilla announced yesterday they will be quickly launching their very own smartphone device that will run on the Firefox operating system. What a huge move for Mozilla, as the open system is developed solely using HTML5, a coding program for web developing. It is a very different approach for an OS, and it will run as if it were an extension of the Firefox desktop experience. Despite many worried consumers, the company firmly states that you can “expect all the security, privacy, customization and user control Firefox always delivers”.

But is there room in the smart device market for a Mozilla phone? Well why not, and what's to lose for trying? There is always room for more competition, especially when taking into account how much money people fork over not only for the phone purchase but the monthly rate. The phone will first be released in Spain. This could be a successful debut due to the area's rough economic state, especially for consumers who are in the market for a budget device, and what better budget for a phone plan than roughly 2.38 euros a month? Telefonica, who's home market resides in Spain, perceives this as a great opportunity for takers.

The biggest question may be whether or not this could make so much as a dent in Android or iOS sales. If what we like about our phones so much involves it's content, could the Mozilla phone only be as good as its apps? Well it's not just content to take in to account but its performance on lower end hardware. If you mix the dangers regarding HTML5's ability to work on a mobile device with the lower powered hardware you get a question mark. GPS running alone or with other applications paralleling it are more difficult to be run efficiently in HMTL5; both of which have been stated as struggles in development.

Native lower end Android devices stack up to the challenge, so what if Mozilla can't? It is going to be interesting to see how smooth the machine can operate. With a price tag of just 90 dollars in total, yes that means roughly 3 dollars a month (with a two-year contract), there is no room for expectation of perfection. Yet, what about something you can live with, that can assist your needs and is still relatively smart? In response to going the internet route for development, Luis Miguel Gilperez, CEO of Telefonica states “We believe that smartphones need to be more open and that the Web is a platform for making this possible”. This launch, whether successful or not, is an important step for continuing innovative thinking and experiments throughout various technological ecosystems, because without this there is no competitive market.