Mozilla today confirmed details about their upcoming open source mobile operating system aimed at lower end smartphone market. The OS will use Mozilla’s Firefox brand and will support HTML 5 applications. Operators like Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Telenor will partner up with Mozilla to launch the new Firefox OS.

Also, device manufacturers TCL Communication Technology (under the Alcatel One Touch brand) and ZTE today announced their intentions to manufacture the first devices to feature the new Firefox OS, using Snapdragon(TM) processors from Qualcomm.

The Firefox OS for mobile devices is built on Mozilla's "Boot to Gecko project" which unlocks many of the current limitations of web development on mobile, allowing HTML5 applications to access the underlying capabilities of a phone, previously only available to native applications. Telefonica's Digital unit joined forces with Mozilla earlier this year to take this work and showcase a new phone architecture where every phone feature (calling, messaging, games, etc.) is an HTML5 application.

The first Firefox OS powered devices are expected to launch commercially in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefonica's commercial brand, Vivo.