Competing in the smartphone market dominated by iOS and Android is one of the great challenges in the tech industry—even for companies with strong platforms and deep pockets like Microsoft and BlackBerry. For those companies trying to bring entirely new smartphone operating systems to market—like Mozilla with its Firefox OS—it's even tougher.

Mozilla has good news to report, though. Four hardware makers (Alcatel, LG, ZTE, and Huawei) stand ready to make Firefox phones to be sold later this year, from 17 carriers across the globe. Mozilla also said it has the first commercial build of its Firefox OS ready to be previewed at Mobile World Congress.

The announcement shows Mozilla is ahead of Canonical's Ubuntu for phones in terms of both the stage of technology development and ability to publicly announce partners. Still, there is far to travel. Firefox phones will hit the market this year overseas, but not in the US until 2014 according to Computerworld. And while the hardware makers on board are well-known, they're not dominant players in the smartphone market. Samsung, the world's most successful maker of Android phones, has reportedly said it has no interest in selling Firefox phones. Samsung already has an alternative operating system in the open source Tizen (which is being combined with the failed Bada OS).

The smartphone market is a big one, though, and perhaps Mozilla can gain a foothold overseas. "The first wave of Firefox OS devices will be available to consumers in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela," Mozilla said. "Additional markets will be announced soon."

A path to the US market is possibly evident in the list of carriers ready to sell Firefox phones. Although AT&T and Verizon Wireless aren't on the list, Sprint and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's owner) are on board. The other carriers announced by Mozilla are América Móvil, China Unicom, Etisalat, Hutchison Three Group, KDDI, KT, MegaFon, Qtel, SingTel, Smart, Telecom Italia Group, Telefónica, Telenor, TMN, and VimpelCom. The first phones are expected to launch mid-year from América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, and Telenor.

While Firefox and Ubuntu phones both have raised excitement among technophiles, Firefox may have an advantage Ubuntu doesn't: widespread name recognition. Many potential phone buyers who have never heard of Ubuntu Linux could well be familiar with Firefox because of its status as the world's second-most popular Web browser and the availability of the Firefox browser on Android phones.

Firefox's answer to the question of how to build a viable mobile platform for applications is that the Web itself is the platform. "Firefox OS smartphones are the first built entirely to open Web standards, enabling every feature to be developed as an HTML5 application," the company says. "Web apps access every underlying capability of the device, bypassing the typical hindrances of HTML5 on mobile to deliver substantial performance. The platform’s flexibility allows carriers to easily tailor the interface and develop localized services that match the unique needs of their customer base." Facebook and Twitter will be integrated into the system, Mozilla said.

That message has appealed to some carriers who hope Firefox OS will help level the playing field. The next step is building phones consumers actually want to buy and use.