Mozilla Launches Phase 2 Of Phones For Apps, Calls For Ports To Firefox OS

Mozilla has just announced the next stage of its program to bring developers and apps into their fledgling Firefox OS platform. However, this time around, they are not asking for new apps but are instead looking for ports of existing HTML 5 apps in exchange for a Firefox OS phone.

Mozilla launched the first phase of its Phone for Apps initiative last May when it put out a call for web app developers to create fresh new apps for the platform. The sky was the limit, almost literally, regarding the topic of the app, ranging from games, tools, productivity, social networking, news, astronomy, and much more. The program was open to anyone with an idea and the capacity to execute on it.

In exchange, selected developers would receive the Geeksphone Keon Firefox OS Developer Preview unit, a smartphone that sports a 1 GHz Snapdragon A1 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage, and a 3.5-inch HVGA display. The same device, which normally has a price tag of $119, is again up for grabs in this second part of Mozilla's initiative.

The requirements for getting into Phase 2 are quite straightforward: the HTML 5 app must already exist and is available on some repository online. This covers apps from Amazon Web Apps, BlackBerry WebWorks, Chrome Web Store, webOS, or PhoneGap store. Even apps on iTunes or Google Play can be included as long as they are HTML 5 apps wrapped with a native skin. The important point is that the developer must be able to point to a live, existing HTML 5 app to qualify.

Of course, developers need not wait to get a Firefox OS device to be able to start working, as they can make use of the Firefox OS simulator. In fact, they can't afford to wait, as Mozilla is expecting completed apps by September or October at the latest.

SOURCE: Mozilla