ZTE to flog Firefox OS mobe worldwide via eBay Chinese mobile maker ZTE has announced plans to sell a smartphone running the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox OS worldwide via online auction site eBay. The company said the orange-colored version of the ZTE Open would go on sale "soon" for $79.99 on eBay's US site and £59.99 in the UK, though no specific date was given. "The …
For $80 you expect to be wowed? This isn't really intended for the US or UK market, it will do fine for that part of the world for whom an iPhone 5 or Galaxy S4 may cost the better part of their yearly income.
The thing that will determine the long term success of Firefox OS is if its system requirements are lower than that a 2.x version of Android, allowing for lower priced phones. Microsoft also isn't extorting money out of makers of FIrefox OS phones, though if they succeed they may try the same trick...
If the Firefox guys are smart it won't support vFAT and similar stuff that Microsoft has successfully asserted patent rights over previously. They can leave that to third party apps who can come and go like gophers popping their heads up faster than Microsoft can knock them down :)
It hardly get the loins pining and puts modesty in the shade
True, but for a weekend or "party phone" (one you won't mind too much losing/smashing/having stolen) it's probably ideal.
Also, not everyone is turned on by expensive high-end hardware, but may want more than a regular feature phone can offer (eg. email and web on the move) in which case the ZTE could be just the ticket.
What is welcome to see is ZTE going it alone when the operators/carriers turn their noses up. The operators are not the be-all and end-all - certainly not at this end of the market.
If you want a weekend/party phone, there are lots of cheap unlocked ones to choose from on e-bay, especially if you're used to Android and don't want the hassle of learning how to use a new phone OS. I bought my first two Android phones on e-bay and they are both still working fine.
"I bought my first two Android phones on e-bay and they are both still working fine."
That's fine if you want an NSA spy in your pocket. For me and millions of others the Mozilla or Ubuntu is the only option for a smart phone. I want a phone that isn't rammed with malware and doesn't let the State spy on everything I do.
Marketing distinction only. Is Android only a feature phone with a Java interpreter to run apps, and a web browser?
I could argue (unconvincingly) it is only a smartphone if I can write a program in my language of choice, install and run it with minimal inconvenience. On that basis the current fruity product is only a "feature phone". The distinction between the two, feature and smart, is controlled by a slider whose position depends on the argument you want to support.
The iphone 2007 couldn't run 3rd party apps at all (and hence wasn't a smart/feature phone, but a dumb phone). This can, so is a smart phone (as someone else says, the difference between feature and smart is just marketing) - that the language is HTML5 isn't really relevant, as long as the user can install applications similar to other smart phones.
I bought a ZTE Blade 3 as my first smartphone from Virgin for £80 including £10 credit. It's locked to Virgin, of course, but the phone's specs are much better than the Open, with a 4" 800x480 screen and it runs Android 4.0.
I don't see how the Open can reasonably compete with ZTE's current products in the UK without a price reduction.
Well that's the trickery there. the "80 quid" virgin locked phone doesn't cost 80 quid, it costs far more that you make up with monthly payments.
If the firefox phone is kept up to date with software updates it will certainly kick the ass of similarly priced android phones which all run some 2.x version of android (and have security flaws that have existed and been abused for years already).
"With an HTML-based OS, I have a nasty feeling that it will mean javascript - which means I for one won't be going anywhere near it."
I grew up writing assembler and moved on to C++. You're living in the past.
The language has some shortcomings, but the worst features are being ironed out in ECMAScript 6. They're even going to accommodate people who can't get their heads round prototype-based inheritance.
On a desktop, well tuned js is only 2-3 times slower than native code. (Although it can be worse on old Android; and on the iPhone, where Apple refuses to let apps use Nitro.) And if you need more speed there is WebGl or WebCL (again currently absent on mobile, unless you're writing Ads on the iPhone). There's even asm.js to compile into native code.
Get in and start learning your way round now. HTML5 is going to come to pass.
A phone that isn't stuffed with operator crapware that you can't uninstall.
I think what will make or break this is "app" support, namely, is this going to be a high end feature phone (does what it says on the tin and nothing else) or a low end smartphone (can do stuff the user wants to do). Apps for streaming radio (the CPU is okay for that), SCP/telnet, (okay, spot the nerd!), useful stuff - if not processor-intensive video and/or games.
"Apps for streaming radio (the CPU is okay for that), SCP/telnet, (okay, spot the nerd!), useful stuff - if not processor-intensive video and/or games."
VNC? (geek here too). What connectivity has this thing got?
Angry Birds etc with in-app purchasing is not a major factor for me.
Is there a market for the ARM-based phone equivalent of a Raspberry Pi, with a community of followers many of them contributing in their own way?
Is this a seed in that market?
I don't really understand your distinction between feature and smart - does this mean an iphone is a feature phone, because of the limitations? Maybe it is - I think that's a far argument - though unfortunately most the media are using a different definitions, making the distinction between the terms fairly meaningless.
(Unless you mean apps, but then that's not a distinction, as "feature" phones have had 3rd party apps from 2004 or earlier.)
I'm still running fine with my much battered Nexus S. I've been shopping for a new phone, but just can't see spending hundreds of dollars for a marginal improvement in utility.
I'd give this a go with no problem. If it will do Gmail, Twitter, and has a decent GPS, I'm in.
Does though raise the question why big name phones are running $500-700 when ZTE can sell this for under a hundred bucks....
And now Nokia no longer has to fight only the cheap androids for the low price market... With most lumia sales in the bottom of the market (apparently the 520 is their best seller) a fast, cheap competitor, which doesn't "phone home" to Microsoft/NSA is likely to be very bad news for Nokia.
It's competition, but hardly a nail. More of a nail for Apple, who have no ability to compete at the lower end (other than selling old out of date products), if that's where the market moves in future.
Your logic is also plain confusing - Nokia are doing well in one area, so therefore this is a nail in the coffin? Surely the argument would be if they were doing badly in that area. I mean, Samsung are doing well at the high end, so by your logic, it's a nail in their coffin if someone else releases a high end phone?
It has a better cpu than the original ZTE blade (orange san fran) but with only 256 mb ram but if firefox OS is more efficient than Android with RAM it may be responsive enough. And the cpu should handle standard definition video without a problem.
I think for it to be a success in the UK they need to get it into the supermarkets and drop the price by another £10 and maybe offer other colours other than orange.
This post has been deleted by its author
And with the ZTE priced to compete with Landfill Android, it should at least be able to hold its own in terms of performance, and maybe even better. Now it just needs a few more apps - hopefully developers will see the value in developing for HTML5, it's incredibly easy to create and deploy, and should run on pretty much anything with a decent browser.
First the featurephone was commoditised. Now the tablet and the smartphone are being commoditised. Everybody in the West who thinks an iPhone gives them status probably now has one.
The car industry has gone the same way, at least around here. Once BMWs and Mercs were status symbols. Now they are just companymobiles and the driveways of my neighbours are full of them, with the odd 911 and a sprinkling of Audi TTs and the like. They no longer convey status to normal people.
The Kia Picanto is a cheap, small, low performance but reliable and robust city car. They are around in increasing numbers even though there is no local Kia dealer. You even see them with personalised number plates. They get the job done, it's no big deal if they get a bit bent, and they seem to have become classless, a replacement for the old Morris Minor if you like.
In effect, the snobbery situation reverses, from "look at me, I have a 5 series/iPhone therefore I have status", to "look at me, I can drive around in a cheap car/use a cheap phone because everyone knows I have status".
I think that in the more educated parts of the world we may have reached this tipping point.
is the presentation layer really the only bit that matters?
Or is there more to Firefox OS than that?
I've worked with OSes from Unix V7 to Linux V(random) and VMS too, so I'm not looking for a dummies guide, but a recommendation of an intro to Firefox OS for people who understand OSes (from the outside) would be most welcome, thank you please.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
