Mozilla has demonstrated its Firefox OS open mobile ecosystem at a press event on the eve of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The event introduced seven new commercial Firefox OS devices and highlighted advancements and partnerships that will enable the platform to scale up in 2014.

　　In the year since MWC 2013, Firefox OS devices have gone on sale in 15 markets with four global operators and handsets from three manufacturers. Firefox OS will be expanding into important new markets in 2014. Telefonica will build on the list of countries where it is selling Firefox OS phones, with eight more launching in the year: Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. Deutsche Telekom will also add four new markets: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia and Montenegro.

　　Operator support for Firefox OS also continues to expand, as Telkomsel and Indosat have joined the list of 21 key operators across the globe that support the open Web device initiative. That list also includes partners announced in 2013: America Movil, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia Group, Telefonica, Telenor, Telstra, TMN and VimpelCom.

　　Spreadtrum has announced WCDMA and EDGE turnkey reference designs for Firefox OS as well as the industry's first chipset for US$25 smartphones, the SC6821. These solutions have already attracted interest of global operators such as Telenor, Telkomsel and Indosat, and ecosystem partners such as Polytron, T2Mobile and Thundersoft.

　　Deutsche Telekom developing new Firefox OS features for the Future of Mobile Privacy project, a joint effort with Mozilla to bring data privacy closer to customers. The organizations' privacy offices have been collaborating to conceptualize and develop new privacy features that are currently being tested for consideration in future Firefox OS releases.

　　Firefox OS is also expanding to additional form factors, as partners and contributors work to optimize the software for TVs, tablets and other devices. In January, Panasonic announced a partnership with Mozilla to release next-generation smart TVs powered by Firefox OS.

　　To help service partners' demand for producing Firefox OS devices and facilitate the next wave of device growth, Mozilla launched a new self-service partner portal to fast track manufacturers and streamline bringing devices to market. Manufacturers get all the resources and branding required to launch a Firefox OS device in one place.

　　In order to promote the ecosystem, the Open Web Device Compliance Review Board (CRB) was formed by Mozilla and major global partners in late 2013. The CRB's aim is to define and evolve the process of encouraging API compatibility and competitive performance for open Web devices.