The First Firefox Phone Will Launch This Summer In 9 Countries

Steve Kovach/Business InsiderGary Kovacs, Mozilla CEO.Mozilla, the company that makes the Firefox Web browser, will begin selling phones running its new mobile operating system this summer in nine countries: Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and Venezuela

Why the slow rollout?

Speaking at AllThingsD's Dive Into Mobile conference today, Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs said Firefox OS will be targeted at emerging markets at first. The first phone will launch around June.

But the US won't be left out. Sprint has already committed to launching a Firefox OS phone, and the first should arrive in 2014. Kovacs said Mozilla is waiting for the ecosystem to develop a bit more before launching in the highly competitive US market.

Firefox OS is a web-based mobile operating system that is open for any developer to tinker with. It's a similar concept to Android, but all apps run within a browser for a uniform experience across all devices.

An earlier version of this story said phones with Firefox OS would launch in five countries. However, it appears Kovacs misspoke. Mozilla PR reached out to us with the full list of launch countries and this story has been changed to reflect that.