Mozilla won’t be bringing Firefox OS-powered smartphones to developed markets until next year, but that isn’t stopping the company from releasing other products that’re powered by its homegrown operating system. Although limited to Europe for the time being, Mozilla has teamed up with Panasonic to release a new line of smart televisions that’re powered by Firefox OS and are expected to launch globally “in the coming months.”
If you’ve been waiting for one of Panasonic’s Firefox OS-based HDTVs and live in Europe, you’re in luck: As the Mozilla Blog noted late last week, Panasonic Viera TVs running Firefox OS are now available for purchase in Europe. Panasonic released six models running Mozilla’s OS—the CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680—but pricing and availability will vary depending on which country you live in. Panasonic first announced its plans to make a Firefox-based HDTV back at CES 2014, and showed off the fruits of the partnership earlier this year. Although the TVs are out now in Europe, the rest of us have to wait a while longer: Mozilla says the TVs “will be available worldwide in the coming months.” As VentureBeat points out, the world has not been quick to pick up on Firefox OS, and Firefox-based devices barely register in a smartphone world dominated by Android and iOS. (Part of the reason for this, of course, is the fact that Firefox OS-based phones won’t arrive in developed markets like the US until next year.) By making the jump to smart TVs, Firefox OS now has another avenue to take to gain relevance, even though you might not know that it’s running under the hood.
