Smartphone Wars Heat Up As Firefox, Tizen and Ubuntu Set Android In Their Sights At Mobile World Congress

The smartphone industry is buzzing at this year’s Mobile World Congress, where the launch of Mozilla’s brand new Firefox OS stole most of the headlines this morning. Firefox is just the latest challenger to enter the smartphone OS arena, and alongside them we’re also expecting to hear more from Samsung about its new Tizen operating system. Meanwhile Ubuntu has stepped up its own challenge with the launch of two new tablet devices.

For consumers this is all great news – a greater choice can only be a good thing, but the question remains – will any of these mobile OS’s be able to rise to the challenge and supplant Android as the number one consumer choice? Today we take a closer look at the newest challengers to throw down the gauntlet in the smartphone wars…

Firefox OS

Mozilla made by far and away the biggest splash at MWC this morning, with the official launch of Firefox OS coming alongside several important announcements – deals agreed with no less than 18 carriers, a partnership with Qualcomm to use its snapdragon chipsets, and four manufacturers stating that they intend to build phones running on Firefox OS. In addition, we also saw the first two Firefox OS phones, the Alcatel One Touch Fire, and the ZTE Open.

Firefox OS is quite a bit different from Android, iOS and Windows Phone in that it’s not a ‘walled garden’ like its rivals, being based on the open web instead. What this means is that interacting with its HTML5-based apps will essentially be like visiting sites via a browser – in essence, Firefox OS phones will just be browsers, or what Mozilla likes to call “open web devices”, somewhat similar to the Google Chromebook experience.

Mozilla has gotten enough to a flying start, announcing that LG, ZTE, Alcatel and Huawei all intent to design and ship Firefox OS phones, with the devices set to launch in nine countries – Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela – this summer, with others expected to follow (The US will probably see them in 2014).

But can Firefox OS compete with Android? As always, apps will be important, and Firefox OS already has a decent little eco-system, with Mozilla-designed email and calendar apps alongside Nokia’s HERE maps service. The Mozilla Foundation also points out one crucial advantage it has – there are some 8 million HTML developers out there, compared to just hundreds of thousands of Android and iOS developers.

Ovum analyst Tony Cripps called the debut “spectacular”, noting the level of support Mozilla has secured pre-launch, something that “no device software platform has previously managed.” Firefox OS has undoubtedly gotten off to a rip-roaring start and this level of backing, plus the fact that Mozilla is targeting the low-to-mid end market, the company will have real hope of gaining traction among curious consumers.

Tizen

Tizen remains something of an enigma given that no-one’s had the chance to play with it yet, but if there’s one thing we can be sure about, it’s that Samsung is deadly serious about using it to challenge Android’s dominance of the smartphone market.

Various reports suggest that Samsung is going to make a big announcement about Tizen at MWC, while the company has already stated via email to Blooomberg that “We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions.”

“The Tizen was born as Samsung hoped to lighten its growing dependence on Google on concerns that its top position in the smartphone market may weaken following the Google-Motorola tie-up,” added Samsung.

Just like Firefox OS, Tizen has some serious backing behind it. As well as Samsung making the actual devices, Intel is also heavily involved in the project (Tizen will be a genuine open-source mobile OS) and will likely power the new phones, while Japan’s NTT Docomo has already committed to carrying the smartphones.

In addition, the new OS will be far more versatile than its rivals. The latest version of Tizen, 2.0 Magnolia, has been designed to be scalable not just for smartphones, but also for Smart TVs, Smart appliances and in-car systems.

Given that it’s only Samsung using the platform (for now), Tizen probably won’t make much of a dent in Android’s market share for some time. Samsung will likely continue to follow a multi-OS strategy, and so its high-end phones will probably continue to run Android for the foreseeable future. However, it’s believed that Samsung is keen to distance itself from Google given that it relies heavily on its partner for software updates, and so by pushing Tizen’s development and adoption, it’s taking out a good insurance policy in case Google ever decides to be less generous with Android.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu made its latest play last week, getting in ahead of its rivals with the announcement of the first tablet devices running the Linux-based operating system, which follows the unveiling of its smartphone platform earlier this year. Canonical is set to showcase two new tablets at MWC this week, and at a first glance they do seem to hold great promise.

Those critics who brush off Canonicals’ contribution as “yet another tablet” might be in for surprise, as the Ubuntu tablets look just as stylish as the latest iPad and Android tablets. Even more, they pack plenty of features that Apple and Samsung’s devices lack, including secured multi-user accounts, swiping to launch apps, voice assistance and full support for tablet to PC transformation.

One of the best features is the multi-accounts capability, which allows owners to create their own, fully-encrypted account (where they can store all their data), plus ‘guest accounts’ for friends and family that share the tablet with them. Another unique concept with Ubuntu tablets is that there’s no actual home screen or hardware buttons – instead, users just swipe left or right to launch different apps. Meanwhile, the Ubuntu tablet’s voice assistance can be used for all sorts of tasks, like editing movies, documents, images and audio files.

The real kicker with Ubuntu – and not just its tablets but also its smartphones – is the ability to launch the devices into fully fledged PCs by attaching a display, keyboard and mouse. Canonical owner Mark Shuttleworth has previously spoken of his belief that Ubuntu OS represents the future of computing, wherein our smartphones and/or tablets become the central ‘brain’ for all of our computing needs, with users simply plugging them in then shoving them in back in their pockets when it’s time to move.

Ubuntu phones wont be released until later this year, while the tablets probably won’t be ready until sometime in 2014, but will this late start hurt its chances of denting Android and iOS? Probably not, for several reasons. As well as the cool features above, Ubuntu comes with the special advantage of using the same code across all four form factors – PC, Smart TV, smartphone and tablet, and so apps will be able to run on all four devices without needing to be ported or tweaked. As you can see in the video above, Ubuntu seems to have trumped Microsoft’s Windows 8 with its ‘Side Stage’ feature that allows for different apps to run side-by-side in split screen mode, probably the best approach at multi-tasking yet seen on any platform.