Here’s how to install Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview experimental app on your Android device to experience and test drive Firefox OS.

When a new smartphone hits the scene, you’re usually stuck with just one choice when it comes to the platform. But Alcatel, looking to find a bit of a niche, has announced a new handset capable of running Android, Windows Phone or Mozilla’s Firefox OS.

It wouldn’t be too harsh to say that Mozilla’s entry into the world of the smartphone hasn’t been the kind of huge success that its fans may have hoped. Firefox OS is, at this point, barely relevant to a market that is dominated by Android and iOS. If Microsoft can only hope to make up the numbers, how can anyone expect Firefox OS to compete?

Mozilla, the company best known for its work on the extremely popular Firefox Web browser, has used this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to showcase an affordable, entry-level smartphone. The company has taken the opportunity to show off a functioning prototype of the $25 smartphone that will be targeted at emerging markets and the developing world. We’ve known for quite some time that Mozilla were on a mission to create a truly affordable smartphone that would benefit individuals in rising markets, but this early-stage prototype running Firefox OS is the first example of the progress made so far.

Mozilla’s Firefox OS looks, on the face of it, to be a clean, smooth, simple experience, and although no vendors have actually signed up as of yet to ship the touch-based operating system on their mobile devices, two developer handsets were available to purchase from Geeksphone, and were sold out within hours of availability. Starting at just $119, the devices that were on offer present an enticing prospect to anybody interested in the company’s open-source mobile ecosystem, and although the Firefox OS is looking to do battle in an ever-crowded market, the legions of Firefox fanatics behind the project give it a very strong chance of forging a substantial user base.

Firefox OS, Mozilla’s attempt to make a dent into the crowded smartphone market, has reached another milestone today with the release of Firefox OS Simulator 3.0, the new developer tool that allows developers and smartphone enthusiasts alike to give the smartphone operating system a try, straight from their computers.

Mozilla’s attempt at a mobile OS has been a long time in the works. The open source smartphone and tablet operating system first began back in 2011, since which the Mozilla team has regularly kept us posted with various updates and info. An appearance at CES on an unspecified smartphones, followed by the release of a couple of developer handsets late last month has certainly heightened general interest, and those keen to get started with Firefox OS may only have a short wait left. According to a press release, the European market will see the first smartphone running Mozilla’s new OS via the Alcatel One Touch, which will first arrive in Poland venturing west across mainland Europe.

Windows Phone 8 is on the up these days accompanied by fantastic devices like the Lumia 920, but it seems to be the emerging Firefox OS that is gathering interest as a newcomer to the scene. Although extremely early builds of the operating system have been released for those daring enough to try it out, not many people have witnessed it in the flesh, that is until it appeared on a mysterious smartphone during a CES event.

The Mozilla team has been busily updating and improving its revered Firefox browser, with more frequent release cycles in place to ensure it maintains competitive with the likes of Google’s Chrome. As planned, the foundation has released version 1.0 of the Firefox OS Simulator, and by means of a blog post, Mozilla has also introduced per-window private browsing via the Firefox Nightly channel.

If you can’t seem to decide between iOS, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone, then worry not, when 2013 comes around there will be another new kid on the block in the form of Mozilla’s Firefox OS. Although the company has been seeding early builds of the operating system to developers since summer and actually introduced it to the world during Mobile World Congress, there is little that we actually know about it.

If you heard some murmurings earlier this month about the future release of yet another mobile operating system and wondered if you had been living in some kind of Total Recall fantasy then don’t worry, you can rest assured that reality is firmly in your grips. Mozilla announced that they are planning on entering the mobile market next year with their Firefox OS, with the intention being to allow Alcatel and ZTE to ship some bottom of the market type devices powered by the operating system.

As important as the hardware specification of a smartphone or tablet may be, it’s not necessarily the end-all, be-all, and the software it runs can be an even more significant factor in the overall quality and popularity of a device.