firefoxos1.jpg

Mozilla's Firefox OS is not widely used but two companies are going to betting big on it. LG showed off its entry level phone - the Fireweb at CES 2014, and then Panasonic - its TVs will be running Firefox OS.

The TV maker will be using Firefox OS over Android because of its openness. According to Panasonic's U.S. vice president of Interactive Content, Merwan Mereby who told the Next Web, the alternative operating systems are too heavily controlled by their makers to be free to use in whatever way they chose.



Mozilla is promising higher end phones that will come from ZTE. For now, most phones running Firefox OS feature low-end specs, and are aimed at first time smartphone users.

The main feature of its Os is its search function, which highlights which apps/sites facilitate the search query. If you typed a band or song name into the search field, the displayed icons would switch to ones like SoundCloud, YouTube, Wikipedia and more. It basically takes the guesswork out of searching for an app to do what you're looking for.

Mozilla is banking on this concept making more sense to users coming from a flip phone, unfamiliar with the whole app process.

Though despite its benefits, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of excitement for the OS. Will LG, ZTE or Panasonic be able to create that demand for them?