Mozilla’s Firefox OS based smartphone is landing today in Spain and will be available in other markets soon. The first phones with Firefox OS unveiled at Mobile World Congress this year are ZTE Open and Alcatel One Touch Fire, both of these phones will go on sale in the coming days. ZTE Open is the first phone that is available to the public starting from today, Telefonica is launching this phone in Spain today for €69 ($90) including a €30 prepaid balance.
Telefonica will also launch the Firefox OS smartphones in other markets including Colombia and Venezuela in the coming weeks. Telefonica is not the only carrier on board for now, several carriers have partnered with Mozilla for these phones in their markets. Telenor will launch Firefox OS based smartphones in Central and Eastern Europe later this year. Deutsche Telecom will launch these phones in Polad later this year. These phones will also launch in other markets including Asia some time later this year.
If you look at the partner list it is clear that there is a lot of demand for an alternative mobile operating system apart from Android and iOS and carriers are keen to give a shot at the third mobile operating system be it a Firefox OS or Tizen or any other. Carriers are hoping that Firefox OS being truly open source will allow them to customize the OS to their needs and include apps, unlike Android where you are compelled to include Google suite of applications.
“The launch of Firefox OS marks an incredibly exciting time for the Web. Firefox OS powers the first smartphones built entirely on Web technologies and will stimulate an inspiring new wave of innovation for the Web,” says Jay Sullivan, Mozilla Chief Operating Officer. “We are proud to deliver an experience for first time smartphone users that will delight them and really put the power of the Web in people’s hands.”
Firefox OS smartphones will be able to download apps from the Firefox OS marketplace and also from developers who have build web apps based on HTML5. TH OS already include built-in social features for Twitter and Facebook. The marketplace includes apps and games from various developers. These phones come with Nokia Here Maps and also support offline viewing.
Via Mozilla, Telefonica
ZTE Open Specifications:
- Display: 3.5-inch TFT screen with HVGA resolution (480 x 320 pixels), One Point touch + Gesture Captive(Two point option)
- Firefox OS
- Dimensions: 114mm X 62mm X 12.5mm
- CPU: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S1 MSM7225A (Upto 800MHz with Adreno 200 GPU)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Ambient Light
- Battery: 1200mAh
