Mozilla will launch a series of inexpensive Firefox OS smartphone models in the India market in July, with retail prices of up to US$50, according to company COO and Mozilla Taiwan CEO Gong Li.

Mozilla initially launched Firefox smartphones in the Latin America and Europe markets in July 2013 and has sold about one million units, Gong said. Mozilla has been able to cooperate with only 1-2 mobile telecom carriers in each country in the two regional markets, but will instead cooperate with more than 10 retail chains in India, Gong indicated. Therefore, Mozilla expects better sales performance in the India market, Gong added.

With low-cost chip solutions developed by China-based Spreadtrum Communications and cooperation with smartphone ODMs, Mozilla has succeeded in keeping production cost down to US$25 for models carrying retail prices of up to US$50, Gong indicated.

There have been 10 hardware makers and more than 20 mobile telecom carriers supporting Firefox OS platform, Gong said. LG Electronics and China-based vendors Alcatel OneTouch, Huawei Device and ZTE have launched Firefox smartphones in 15 countries, Gong indicated.

In addition, Taiwan-based Foxconn Electronics and VIA Technologies have participated in developing Firefox tablets, and Panasonic plans to launch Firefox smart TVs, Gong disclosed. Mozilla aims to sell 10 million Firefox smartphones over the next year, Gong noted.