Mozilla today announced that its upcoming mobile operating system project, Boot to Gecko, will use Firefox branding. The project has been renamed to Firefox OS, and the first device featuring this new platform is expected to launch in early 2013.

Along with new branding announcement, Mozilla has also announced new partners and supporters. These companies include mobile operators and manufacturers like Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telenor, TCL Communication Technology (Alcatel) and ZTE. Telefonica and Qualcomm have already expressed their interest in the project.

Firefox OS

Unlike Google’s ChromeOS, Mozilla’s Firefox OS will be a regular operating system for mobile devices based on HTML5. Mozilla engineers have been working on new APIs to unlock the access to device features for the HTML5 web applications, similar to the native apps which are generally platform/device specific. These Web APIs will allow developers to develop platform and device independent apps working consistently everywhere.

This support from operators and OEMs globally indicated a bright future of the upcoming mobile platform. Mozilla is planning first commercial launch of Firefox OS based devices in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefónica.