Mozilla Calls for Help in Delivering Firefox OS Tablets

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place recently in Las Vegas, and Mozilla officials made headlines there as they revealed plans to take the Firefox OS mobile platform to devices other than smartphones, and a new deal between Panasonic and Mozilla to drive smart, HTML 5-fluent televisions. It's all part of Mozilla's ongoing effort to focus on mobile technology and new platforms.

Mozilla has also launched a contribution program to seed Firefox OS on tablets, and Mozilla's Asa Dotzler is out with a post making clear that the Tablet Contribution Program is open to everyone.

According to Asa's post:

"Mozilla has limited full-time resources to dedicate to tablet-specific Firefox OS development. That will hopefully change in the future but for the time being that means we need all kinds of help. I wanted to put it out there to let you know that, yes, we want YOU! to come work with us to make Firefox OS kick ass on the tablet form factor."

"We’re looking for people who can help us test Firefox OS regularly and report defects, chart feature gaps with competitor tablets, triage incoming bug reports, localize and translate UI, prioritize work and build roadmaps, hack on existing features, define new features and experiences, and more. If that sounds exciting to you, stay tuned for instructions on applying to receive hardware and participate in the Tablet Contribution Program. Get a head start on the process and make sure you’ve got a Bugzilla account and a Mozillians account."

Mozilla's Tablet Contribution Program was recently announced, and gives participants access to nightly builds of the tablet-centric version of Firefox OS running on a device from Foxconn (see image above). It's very clear that we're going to see tablets based on Firefox OS. Clearly, though, Mozilla is aware that viable tablets need to start arriving and application development needs to ramp up if there is any hope of competing with tablets based on other platforms. 

In the comments section of Asa's post, you can see that people in the Mozilla community are excited about Firefox OS tablets. There will be more to come.

Image Courtesy of Asa Dotzler