Spanish startup to ship first Mozilla-phones Mozilla has taken a small step closer to finding out whether the world wants another smartphone operating system, with Spanish startup Geeksphone (working with Telefonica) announcing developer previews of two Firefox-based devices. Details are relatively sketchy about the two Qualcomm Snapdragon-based 3G mobiles. One, the Keon …
Competition is a good thing and it'll be nice to have a phone OS that has openness in mind unlike android which I think google would love to close up if they could. Since its apps will largely be HTML/JS then I'm also able to target other phones so the risk is lower. I'll definitely get one is the price is reasonable and use it as a 2nd phone or for mobile web development.
In terms of HTML5 as the basis for a mobile OS you've got Intel/Samsung with Tizen and Mozilla with Firefox OS - I certainly know who I would trust the most with the future of HTML5 on mobile devices.
Intel/Samsung are guaranteed to ring fence their solution with proprietary extensions to protect themselves, and thus fuck it all it up, whereas I would trust and expect Mozilla to keep things far more open and standards compliant.
Tapeador, good questions. I hope at least the processor of concern is not a lock down. However, I think we can assume ARM/x64 are a lock in. As far as price, I wouldn't think it would be much cheaper than a Android, but does anyone have reasoning why it would be more?
From this page... http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefoxos/
"Freedom from proprietary mobile platforms
We’re collaborating with OEMs and carriers directly, giving them more influence to meet the specific needs of their users and market. Users and developers aren’t locked in to one platform, so they can access their info and use apps across multiple devices."
Pretty mid-range specs, both in terms of memory (512MB) and processor. I hope it's enough for an environment that is based entirely on interpreted languages.
JavaScript has never been a speed demon even when running on fast hardware so unless Mozilla are making a monumental mistake it should be interesting to see how Firefox OS performs on these devices.
I think fast judgement of "another OS for mobile" or whatever, is completely ridiculous. This still is a new area. Of course, there was a lot of ridicule behind Firefox to begin with. Many said "Does Mozilla need another browser?". Well, we see how that turned out.
Considering there is only 3 major players in the Smartphone OS market (Win, Mac, Google), a fourth is certainly welcomed. Now, when you also consider that the 3 major ones in existence are heavily commercial, then a 5th might even be welcomed (anyone working on a 5th? Ubuntu?).
Glad to see it, the area is still fresh, and just by looking at what we have now, there is certainly room for improvement. Competition could help this. Regardless, I welcome a "shake up" early on in development, better early than late at least.
Smartphone OS's have not even been popular for 10 years, yet a lot of people take area to already be a "Wrap".
"anyone working on a 5th? Ubuntu?"
Yes, Ubuntu for mobile is planned later this year. There's also Tizen (another Linux-based OS using HTML5 for applications, backed by Samsung) and Sailfish (developed from Meego), not to mention BB10. Already, Nokia's new low end smartphone OS Asha seems to be growing rapidly.
It's also worth remembering that historically, there have been plenty of operating systems, not just 2 or 3: Symbian was number one until 2011, BlackBerry was far larger in the past, there were also other platforms like Maemo/Meego. Then there is the fact that "smartphone" is really a marketing term that doesn't actually cover all mobile OSs, there are still loads of other platforms like S40 that have sold hundreds of millions. It's a big market, and I agree there's certainly room.
I used to love Firefox and scream its praises. Then it stated throwing up alerts and warnings and upgrade notices every time I launched it. I groan every time I have to use FF now because I know it's going to bug me with questions as soon as I open it. I'd read that they'd stop doing this but they haven't.
So if their phone is anything like their browser, I'd be throwing it against the wall after a week.
They should just save the money, we don't need another phone OS. I wont even charge a consultation fee for my advice here.
their countrymen are, at making Tesco multi-meat hamburgers with wild-boar, donkeys, pork, horse and anything else lying around on the abattoir floor.
Perhaps they will find a market in Portugal or South America. Or sub-contract the deal to Chinese entrepreneurs when the Spanish economy picks up, and with it higher wages. Or they could repackage a Chinese product and wrap it a decent quality case.
If the likes of RIM is struggling, as well as Nokia-Windows, what hell dos it have?
People don't like buying potential orphans - what can a dead cell phone be used for?
So it was the Spanish who were responsible for making those extra tasty burgers. Clearly you only like dull boring beef, but those of us with taste-buds and lacking girly qualms actually like a bit of horse meat, and salami isn't salami if it's not made from donkey. People that bought those burgers should have been grateful that they got more than they paid for.
I guess you should just stick with eating burgers made from cow sphincter and other such parts ... or do you really think that burgers are made from prime cut.
ya got it wrong mate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/31/e-coli-deaths-16-germany-sweden
"But later authorities in Hamburg showed the Andalucian produce was absolutely fine and it was in fact German beansprouts which had caused the bacteria to spread."
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/11/13/happy-ending-for-spanish-cucumber-firm/
talk about stereotyping and what not...
off to have a beer under the mighty beatiful sun :)
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