When Mozilla rebranded its Boot to Gecko project to "Firefox OS" and began detailing the platform's first hardware, it also teased that Firefox OS-powered devices would eventually be sold in the U.S. by Sprint. Mozilla's been fairly silent about its plans to bring Firefox OS stateside since, and now it looks like we may not see any phones powered by the 'Fox here at all.
Mozilla Executive Chair Mitchell Baker has told CNET that her company currently has "no plans to launch in the U.S.," but she later clarified that developer phones will be made available to U.S. consumers. Meanwhile, Mozilla VP of Mobile Andreas Gal explained that Mozilla is "actively exploring" partnerships with U.S. carriers and manufacturers. For now, though, the ZTE Open is currently the only device that Mozilla has on offer for the U.S. market.
Even though we never really had any details about any U.S.-bound Firefox OS phones save for the fact that they'd be offered by Sprint, it's still kind of a bummer to learn that that device is no longer in the pipeline. After all, having more choices when shopping for a new smartphone is always a good thing. The good news is that at least anyone in the U.S. that really, truly wants a Firefox OS device will be able to snag one of developer devices that Baker was referring to. If you'd like to pick up a Firefox OS device to mess with right now, you can buy a ZTE Open for $79.99 from ZTE's official eBay shop.
Via CNET
