Mozilla has always been one of the largest supporters of open web standards including HTML5. They made their support more official this week with a pair of announcements at Barcelona.
According to the Mozilla blog, the company said it will be attending this year’s Mobile World Congress with the intent to promote “an open, people-centric Web for consumers and developers across all devices and platforms.”
The first major announcement came from Telefonica who are committed to release the first open Web devices in 2012. The devices were built with open Web standards in mind and based on an HTML5 stack with Mozilla’s Web APIs. In the announcement from Telefonica, the company says that they are working with Mozilla and Qualcomm to deliver a feature-rich HTML5 smartphone that will be more affordable than current smartphones. They are currently saying the devices will be available at the price of an entry-level feature phone.
Mozilla also announced Deutsche Telekom’s support for an open web platform with the company’s Innovation Labs joining Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko project.
Mozilla is showing off some neat stuff at the Mobile World Congress this year to compliment their announcements. The company is previewing its open Web apps and the Mozilla marketplace that will offer apps powered by open Web standards like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
They are also showing off the new Persona Browser ID system that we reported on last week. The system will allow users to avoid the lengthy verification process on Web sites that support the new system.
Mozilla is introducing these new technologies in hopes that they become standardized across the Web. With the U.S. pushing for new online privacy standards and Mozilla pushing for open Web standards, the Internet is continually evolving at an every quickening pace.
We’ll keep you up to date on the major happenings at the Mobile World Congress. There is sure to be interesting announcements from all the major players.
