The forthcoming Firefox mobile operating system from Mozilla is expected to be used on 1% of global smartphone shipments in 2013.

That’s according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, which says the Firefox OS will be battling Android for entry-level smartphone users.

A new study from ABI Research says the world’s smartphone customers will download about 36 billion apps in 2012, which means the average smartphone user will download almost 37 applications this year. It’s almost 6% up on the 35 apps that an average smartphone subscriber was thought to have downloaded in 2011.

However, the long-term trend is heading in the opposite direction.

Mozilla, the non-profit organisation behind the Firefox web browser, has said it’ll use the ‘Firefox’ brand for its forthcoming HTML5-based mobile operating system. A number of major mobile network operators have already expressed their support for the project.

TCL Communication Technology (which uses the Alcatel One Touch brand) and ZTE plan to produce the first Firefox OS devices.

Yahoo! has launched a new web browser called Yahoo! Axis. It’s currently available for Apple iOS devices and as a plug-in for HTML5-enabled desktop browsers such as Firefox 7, Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome.

Features include visual previews of results, a custom homepage and a ‘connected experience’ that lets consumers start their search on one device and finish it on another.

Facebook has announced plans to introduce an ‘App Center’ to its web pages and also to its iOS and Android applications.

It’s designed to encourage the use of mobile apps that link with Facebook.