Mozilla is getting into the app store game with the introduction of Mozilla Marketplace — a store for apps based on web technologies including HTML5 and Mozilla APIs.

Firefox Logo

Google already has a similar app store called the Chrome Web Store, where developers can share apps for use in the Chrome web browser or Chrome OS operating system.

Mozilla Marketplace could be a bit different though — because while developers can submit apps that will run in the Firefox web browser, Mozilla is also working on a new mobile operating system called Boot to Gecko which is based on web technologies. In other words, web apps designed for Firefox should run on smartphones with B2G as well.

Since the apps are built using web languages though, they may not need a Mozilla browser or operating system to run at all. If you have an HTML5 compatible browser, you should be able to run many of the apps from the Marketplace.

In fact, Mozilla is describing the Marketplace as:

the first operating system- and device-independent market for apps based on open Web technologies like HTML5, JavaScript and CSS

Mozilla wills tart taking app submissions from developers at Mobile World Congress next week and plans to launch the store to the public later in 2012.

Interestingly, there’s already a Mozilla Marketplace. It’s the name of the Mozilla Store where you can buy T-shirts, mugs, and other products.

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3 replies on “Mozilla to launch Mozilla Marketplace app store”

  1. Since about the time Chrome 4 came out i stopped giving a damn about Firefox or Mozilla for that matter.
    Back in the 0.7x days of Phoenix / Firebird (prior names of the Browser) it was the go-to browser for being much more lightweight, secure and fast than IE, and on top of that had tabbed browsing.
    But after the 2.x Line it became more and more bloated and nowadays is just as big and slow as the browser it once replaced for most people.

    i personaly use “SRWare Iron” nowadays, which is a Chromium derivative that strips out any google phone home features for collecting/tracking “anonymous” metrics for search or websites visited.
    On top of that, it has a built in adblocker that, unlike chrome plugin adblockers, not only doesn’t display ads that are still downloaded in the background and just hidden, but makes them unreachable for the the browser ala a local HOSTS file.
    Saves bandwith which is especialy nice for 3g/4g surfing both in terms of speed and monthly data caps.

    In my eyes Mozilla lost its relevance in the desktop browser market and seeing that the focus for many people shifts to mobile devices now desperatly tries to regain its standing with Boot-to-Gecko, which by the way uses a modified Android Kernel. Just so they can be the “Default Webbrowser” of a Mobile OS.

    1. Whether Mozzila has lost anything remains to be seen, they still hold onto a very large share of the market and all the major browsers are still competing and improving.

      All of which is what we want them to do as competition is the best way to get them to improve their products and keep on trying to give us the best solutions possible.

      While just because one may be ahead now doesn’t mean it’ll stay ahead or that the competition should ever come to a end.  Least of all if all that’s changed is just which product is presently dominant but all are still widely used.

      Btw, this is quote from MozillaWiki…

      “Is B2G based on Android?

      No. B2G uses some of the same low-level building blocks used in Android (Linux kernel, libusb, etc) in order to reduce the burden on ODMs/OEMs to bring up B2G on new hardware. However, B2G is not based on Android, and will not be compatible with the Android stack (in particular B2G will not run Android applications). “

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