Firefox phones due this year....

The not-for-profit organisation behind the Firefox web browser has announced handsets based on its operating system for mobile phones.

In a press conference ahead of Mobile World Congress, Mozilla said that 18 operators including Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica, were signed up.

The mobiles will go head to head with established software from Apple and Google's Android division.

Mozilla described the Firefox OS as an "open alternative".

Firefox phones are likely to be sold first in the developing world and Eastern Europe and will be at the cheaper end of the smartphone market, according to Jay Sullivan, vice president of products at Mozilla.

He said manufacturers LG, ZTE, Huawei and TCL had all committed to building devices, with more firms "to follow".

The platform is based on the HTML5 web programming language which Mr Sullivan says gave it an advantage over Apple and Android.

"The Firefox marketplace is web-based and will allow a device to do things differently," he told the BBC.

"If someone searches for content it will show any apps that have that content. The web can be searched, indexed and crawled in ways native apps cannot,"

"Developers are busy and don't have time to learn a new programming language. We believe that the only remaining eco-system is the web and there are more developers for the web than for any other platform in the world."

At the beginning of the year, Mozilla revealed a partnership with Spanish firm Geeksphone, with handsets made available to developers.

Sounds interesting and it could be a viable alternative if the OS is good - I guess it will help smaller and budget manufacturers as there should be less licencing cost to use the software.

Having a name like LG attached to it won't so it any harm either