Mozilla bets big on open Web devices

Mozilla’s pretty big on open source. The existence of a number of its products depends on it. Hardly surprising then, that it’s betting that the open Web will soon be coming to a device near you.

The company claims that its goal is to “further the cause of promoting an open, people-centric Web for consumers and developers across all devices and platforms”.

Today it announced a couple of partnerships which it claims are critical to achieving this.

The first will see Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider Telefónica lending its support to Mozilla’s quest to have the first Open Web devices delivered to market later this year. More specifically, it will provide support for the creation of open Web devices based on Mozilla’s “Boot to Gecko” project

According to Mozilla, “These devices, architected entirely on the Web and built based on an HTML5 stack with powerful Web APIs, will mean significant advances in speed and cost reduction for mobile devices in the future”.

The second involves German telecommunications power Deutsche Telekom lending its support to an open Web platform.

According to Mozilla, “Deutsche Telekom’s Innovation Labs will join the “Boot to Gecko” project with dedicated development resources, and is evaluating further steps based on our common experience”.

The company claims it will be “previewing open Web apps and Mozilla Marketplace, enabling the creation and distribution of apps powered by open Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavasScript” later this week.

Mozilla says it will also soon be “previewing Persona, the first identity system truly of the Web, including Browser ID”.

“Since the beginning, it has been our mission as an organisation to develop and bring about a completely open and standards-based Web as a platform for innovation,” it said, adding that its “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”.