Mozilla Firefox web browser has announced handsets based on its operating system for mobile smartphones.
In a press conference ahead of Mobile World Congress, Mozilla said that 18 operators including Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica, were signed up.
The mobiles smartphones will go head to head with established software from Apple iOS and Google’s Android division.
Mozilla described the Firefox OS as an “open alternative”.
Firefox phones are likely to be sold first in the developing world and Eastern Europe and will be at the cheaper end of the smartphone market, according to Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla.
He said manufacturers LG, ZTE, Huawei and TCL had all committed to building devices, with more firms “to follow”.
The platform is based on the HTML5 web programming language which Mr Sullivan says gave it an advantage over Apple and Android.
“The Firefox marketplace is web based and will allow a device to do things differently,” he said.
“If someone searches for content it will show any apps that have that content. The web can be searched, indexed and crawled in ways native apps cannot.”
“Developers are busy and don’t have time to learn a new programming language. We believe that the only remaining eco-system is the web and there are more developers for the web than for any other platform in the world.”
At the beginning of the year, Mozilla revealed a partnership with Spanish firm Geeksphone, with handsets made available to developers.
Mozilla press conference Mozilla showed off its upcoming operating software to the press in Barcelona
Mr Sullivan compared Mozilla’s foray into mobile as similar to its first steps in the desktop world with its browser.
“When we got to 10% market share people started listening to us,” he said. “We had a seat at the table, people started copying our features.”
The full list of operators signing up to the Firefox OS is: America Movil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefonica, Telenor, TMN and VimpelCom.
The organisation said the first countries to get the Firefox handsets would be Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela.