Mozilla, Deutsche Telekom, LG, Qualcomm, TCL/ALCATEL ONETOUCH, Telefónica, ZTE and a number of other tech companies today launched a new initiative that aims to promote the open Web device ecosystem by “encouraging API compliance as well as ensuring competitive performance.” The Open Web Device Compliance Review Board (CRB) will operate as an independent not-for-profit organization, but its standards will be based on Mozilla’s principles of user privacy and control and will also form the basis of Mozilla’s Firefox OS branding requirements.
The idea behind this alliance, the members say, is to ensure that these devices – and for all intents and purposes, Firefox OS-based “boot-to-Gecko” (B2G) phones are currently the focus here – can be brought to market faster. The alliance also hopes that it can support device manufacturers by setting performance standards and minimize their costs for compatibility testing.
In order to do so, the group will set minimum quality bars for performance that will ensure that “performance is similar to any other OS running on a similar device.”
It will also ensure that developers can expect a set of open APIs that will be available on all certified devices. For the time being, though, the group hasn’t certified any specific devices yet, but plans to do so in the near future.
The CRB’s board includes four members from Mozilla, two from Qualcomm and one representative from ZTE – one of the first companies to bet on Firefox OS.
“Users want a wide selection of devices and great apps. Operators, device OEMs and vendors want to be able to develop and test quickly and independently, in order to get new products to market. The CRB will enable partners to do so efficiently, reliably and confidently,” said Andreas Gal, vice president of mobile at Mozilla and the president of the CRB in a canned statement today. “This is the next step in building the ecosystem and will make it easier for partners to get a wide selection of high-quality solutions into consumers’ hands quickly and efficiently.”