Mozilla Making Phone Using Community Ideas

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	6th Feb 2009

Mozilla Making Phone Using Community Ideas

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Hands up who saw this coming...?!

Determined to prove it does more than make a superb web browser and less popular but still rather nifty email client, Mozilla has announced it plans to make a mobile phone. Yep, you heard that right.

Currently dubbed the 'Mozilla Phone' or 'Mozphone' it aims to be all things to all people - by using the input of all people. In short this means the whole project is an open forum where web users can suggest ideas and input feedback while a partnership with the famed Yanko Design will recreate the proposals feeding off these discussions.

Mozilla acknowledges this will initially be chaotic but expects over time for core aspects to be hammered out and certain universal features to be agreed. Where this will lead, who knows? To kick things off Yanko has already pushed out the 'OLED BlackBerry' - a BlackBerry 7130 melded with an Optimus keyboard. It's throwaway concept but represents a starting point to get user debate flowing.

Wildly optimistic or truly inspired and utilising the best aspects of its 'open source' mindset? I guess we'll have a better idea a few months down the line...

Update: Doh! It seems Mozilla is taking a step back here saying it currently has no plans to manufacturer a handset at the end of this process. It did leave us hope with this statement however:

"While Mozilla doesn't have plans to produce an OS or phone hardware at the moment — this doesn't mean that either are out of scope for Mozilla Labs and that's the point of the Concept Series. Everything is on the table."

Let's hope so.

Link:
The Open Web Phone

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ffrankmccaffery said on 6th February 2009

it seems the success of firefox has gotten to the heads of the mozilla staff
maybe if they focused more on improving their main project which although improving is still a f... more

Keldon said on 6th February 2009

I rather like the OLED keyboard :)

Would be nice if that idea made it through this "process".

Having just got my N96 today the only other th... more

Gordon said on 7th February 2009

@Keldon fair points, but why oh why buy an N96? The Samsung i8510 is virtually identical but better in almost every way - and we told you this in the reviews ;)