Sony has announced a surprising move in that they will also support FireFox OS in future smartphones; the mobile OS by Mozilla has made the first commercial version available at World Mobile Congress. The OS is ready to download as a ROM which users would need to flash onto their unlocked Xperia E smartphones. Sony has provided software to aid the process.

The OS in it current form is very much an experimental one and mainly targeted at developers and hobbyists, which Sony would use to get valuable feedback and to spark more interest. There is also a push to get developers to start creating apps for the Firefox Marketplace, the platform Mozilla will use for apps and games. The apps can be made using web technologies, HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. An introduction to developing apps for FireFox Marketplace can be found at this link.

Many functionality of the hardware will not be working right now, such as making calls, Wi-Fi and bluetooth, but it does give a good preview of the things to come and the look and feel. Users can change back to Android OS using the same tool to install FireFox OS from Sony. The FireFox OS powered smartphone will be launched in partnership with Telefonica, most likely early next year. Sony will be making the experimental version ready for users of other models of Xperia to play with in the coming months.