There are rumors this morning that LG Mozilla may be about to unveil the first smartphone to run Mozilla’s Boot 2 Gecko operating system at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.
Citing “a source close to the matter” ExtremeTech says that the phone could be ready as early as next week, but that the Boot 2 Gecko OS probably won’t be ready for public consumption yet. There are no details yet on pricing or hardware, but the source says that the phone could be available as early as next week, though a mid-2012 date is more likely.
Boot 2 Gecko is a completely open-source mobile operating system designed to use entirely with web-based technology like HTML5 and Javascript. The system is built on the same Linux kernel as Android, though it is not based on Android itself. It relies on the same Gecko rendering engine that powers Firefox.
This rumor comes hot on the heels of Mozilla’s announcement that they would be opening the Mozilla Marketplace to developers at the Mobile World Congress. The Marketplace will host HTML5 web apps that will run in Firefox 13, coming this summer. A B2G-based smartphone would add a lot of extra incentive for developers to get their apps ready for the Marketplace sooner rather than later.
What do you think? Would you buy a Mozilla-based smartphone? Let us know in the comments.
