Where Apple, Google, Samsung and other smartphone companies are competing for the share of mobile software in the market. Gary Kovacs, chief executive of Mozilla Corp, said he was confident there was room on the market for a Firefox platform, being an open Web-based alternative to the for-profit offerings from Google and Apple.

Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight said. "Success for any platform is dependent on the virtuous circle of scale and momentum. Manufacturer and operator commitment is essential to driving developer support and consumer interest which in turn strengthens demand for the platform,"

Ovum analyst Nick Dillon said,"Pricing of the devices will be the key for their success." He questioned whether cutting out some layers of operating system would bring significant savings.

"It is hard to see how you could make them much cheaper than comparable Android handsets," Dillon said.