值得谷歌和苹果警惕的手机操作系统

这是什么？

    火狐操作系统是一款价格低廉的轻量级手机操作系统，由曾经开发颇受欢迎的火狐网络浏览器的Mozilla Foundation开发。火狐为什么要趟手机操作系统这趟浑水？毕竟，苹果（Apple）和谷歌（Google）两家已经控制了手机操作系统市场90％以上的份额。微软（Microsoft）和黑莓（Blackberry）则在试图巩固业界老三的地位。但它们虽然花了不少钱，收效却很有限，市场份额只有小得可怜的个位数。火狐瞄准的并不是高端市场，至少目前不是。这款于今年早些时候推出的操作系统最初瞄准的是新兴市场中的廉价手机。

    火狐操作系统是基于Linux，而且采用的是开放源码。在火狐操作系统上，类网络HTML应用可利用JavaScript以及所谓的网络API，直接控制设备的硬件。Mozilla意在建立或巩固网络技术，而不是其它巨头采用的封闭式做法。迄今为止，初始的火狐手机都是低价产品。但台湾科技巨头富士康（Foxconn）——全球最大的电子设备制造商——将支持火狐操作系统。【富士康为苹果和诺基亚（Nokia）组装设备。】我们不妨近距离观察一下这款创新性的操作系统：

What is this?

    Firefox OS is a lightweight, inexpensive operating system for phones being developed by the Mozilla Foundation, the group that makes the popular Firefox web browser. Why is Firefox going in this direction? After all, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)combined control over 90% of the mobile OS market. Attempts by Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) and Blackberry (BBRY) to cement third place -- with market share in the low single digits -- have proved expensive and not-so-successful. Firefox OS isn't going after the top of the market -- at least not yet. Introduced earlier this year, the operating system is initially aimed at low-cost handsets in developing markets.

    Firefox OS is based on Linux and is open source. It is designed to allow web-like HTML apps to directly control a device's hardware using JavaScript and so-called web API's. Mozilla's interest is in establishing or cementing web technologies, as opposed to some of the closed approaches of other big players. So far, initial Firefox phones have been low-frills affairs. But Taiwanese giant Foxconn -- the world's largest manufacturer of electronic devices -- is going to put some weight behind Firefox OS. (Foxconn, of course, puts together devices for Apple and Nokia (NOK).) Here's a closer look at the revolutionary operating system.