The first TVs running the Firefox operating system will become available in Taiwan next month, said Mozilla Corp, developer of the open-source mobile operating system.
The six TV models powered by the Firefox OS are part of Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp’s latest line of VIERA smart TVs, Mozilla said in a statement on Friday.
The six models — the CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680 or variants of them — will hit store shelves in Japan later this week and in several other Asian markets, including Taiwan, next month, Mozilla said.
The Firefox-based TVs started selling in Europe earlier this month. The 50-inch CX700 sells for £999 (US$1,565) on the site of UK-based online retailer Currys, while the 40-inch CX680 starts from £657 on the Amazon UK Web site.
Mozilla said Panasonic’s smart TVs powered by Firefox OS are optimized for the HTML5 technology, providing strong performance for Web apps, and come with a new intuitive and customizable user interface that allows quick access to favorite channels, apps, Web sites and content on other devices.
“We’re happy to partner with Panasonic to bring the first Smart TVs powered by Firefox OS to the world,” Mozilla chief technology officer Andreas Gal said.
“With Firefox and Firefox OS powered devices, users can enjoy a custom and connected Web experience and take their favorite content (apps, videos, photographs and Web sites) across devices without being locked into one proprietary ecosystem or brand,” Gal said in the statement.
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