Mozilla will launch flip and slider phones in 2016

Mozilla announced at the Firefox OS press event that it will launch flip and slider phones most likely by 2016. According to a report by TheVerge, flip phones and slider phones were part the of many form factors spoken at the press event. A big part of Mozilla’s vision for Firefox OS, since it was first announced about four years ago, was to bring the capabilities of smartphones to emerging markets. Mozilla President Li Gong summarised the status of Firefox OS and said, “Two years ago, Firefox OS was a promise. At MWC 2014, we were able to show that Firefox OS scales across price ranges and form factors. Today, at MWC 2015, we celebrate dozens of successful device launches across continents, adoption of Firefox OS beyond mobile, as well as growing interest and innovation around the only truly open mobile platform.” He also said that three major chip vendors have agreed to contribute to the Firefox OS ecosystem. In 2016, the company will leverage new partnerships with KDDI, LG U+, Telefonica, and Verizon Wireless to launch the flip and slider phones with Firefox OS. The report added that the vision has taken a number of forms along the way and the new batch of flip and slider phones running Firefox OS will be available to consumers.