Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain at $3 a month

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57591716-94/firefox-os-phone-launches-tuesday-in-spain-at-$3-a-month/

by janjongboom • 13 years ago

57 26 13 years ago

news.cnet.com

mtgx2• 13 years ago

I bought this phone a year and a half ago with pretty identical specs, for the same price:

http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_u8650_sonic-4205.php

That leads me to believe the phone itself is actually cheaper than that now(in mid-2013), but they preferred to make it more expensive and give credit instead. Still it seems good value with the credit.

I wonder if it really works better than Android at that level. Google is also rumored to make Android 5.0 a lot more optimized for such phones.

josteink• 13 years ago

Google is also rumored to make Android 5.0 a lot more optimized for such phones.

Sorry to be thread-jacking, but I've yet to see/hear any solid and seemingly reliable Android 5-related news or leaks. Got any sources for that claim?

mtgx2• 13 years ago

June 12th (VR-Zone exclusive):

"Our sources left us with some more info regarding the OS. Android 5.0 will be an optimized OS and will run well even on devices with 512 MB of RAM"

http://vr-zone.com/articles/exclusiveandroid-5-0-to-come-in-...

June 28th (WSJ exclusive):

"According to Google, the majority of Android devices currently being used rely on a version of the software released in 2011 that has fewer capabilities than newer releases. Some industry experts say that the most recent versions of Android are better for higher-end devices than lower-end or older ones that had, for instance, 512 megabytes of memory.
The coming version of Android is supposed to remedy the issue, said people familiar with the matter, and also help mobile app developers focus on optimizing their apps for fewer versions of the software."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732368920457857...

Some Google devs at I/O also said a future version of Android will be more optimized for low-end devices. But regardless of how well they optimize it, I think the optimization of apps for such low-end phones is just as big of a problem, and should be a priority, too. Google admitted to this at I/O (that apps are becoming too heavy), but I haven't seen them do much about it. In fact, with the new Hangouts and the new Play Store app they've made it worse.

On phones like the one above, those 2 apps are even slower for me than the previous versions. Firefox might get around this (at least for now) because their HTML5 "apps" will be a lot simpler/lighter, without a lot of elements. The thing pulling back on performance will be Javascript, though, so we'll see if the "lightness" of FF OS' apps beats the slowness of Javascript.

ZeroGravitas• 13 years ago

I bought a ZTE Blade roughly 3 years ago running Android 2.1, which seems to be a spiritual ancestor to this device. I actually paid about the same as this device (including the free credit) but I think most people paid 70-100 euro. See a spec comparison here:

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=3391&idPhone2=...

It was the device that (due to it's price/performance ratio) convinced me there was something to this Android thing.

I'm just glad Mozilla have a reason to focus on the performance of my favourite Android browser, that Google/Apple have a reason to better support modern web standards and that websites can hopefully stop foisting terrible apps on to me and just let me browse.

mokkol• 13 years ago

I have the low-end geeksphone with Firefox OS. Even thought it is an alpha but I think it is really too light for a smartphone. UI isnt that responsive and it freezes quite often. This should be better with mid-end phones in my opinion. But than again, awesome price for a smart phone.

ippisl2• 13 years ago

The dynamic app search , which lets you runs apps on the cloud without needing to install them is an interesting feature.

I heard about something similar for android which runs apps in the cloud , anybody knows how it's called?

gumshuda• 13 years ago

I think you might be talking about http://www.appsurfer.com/

abrowne• 13 years ago

AFAIK they're using everything.me, which does also have an Android version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.everything....

ippisl2• 13 years ago

Thanks, thats the one. It seems very similar to what mozilla talks about :dynamically running mobile sites.

Edit: it appears that everything.me is invested by mozilla, and probably is the dynamic apps feature.

quackerhacker2• 13 years ago

Given the atmosphere with the PRISM fall out, I would imagine Firefox's OS would be welcomed by the public and promoted by privacy advocates.

I'm really excited about Firefox's mobile OS. I was really hoping that the Ubuntu's Mobile OS was going to pick up steam, but it looks like that may not come to fruition.

rimantas• 13 years ago

I would imagine Firefox's OS would be welcomed by the public and promoted by privacy advocates.

You can have the same level of privacy on the other platforms. Just turn airplane mode on. My point is, it is not about OS, it's about services. Unless Mozilla offer their own GSM, Search, cloud, whatever, it does not matter.

gizzlon• 13 years ago

Try using Android without a google account.. Just having the option not to be logged in to google 24 hours a day would be a big win.

DanBC• 13 years ago

I'd buy one of these. Especially if I can debrand it easily.

Any news when they're coming to the UK?

janjongboom2• 13 years ago

Nope. So far Latin America (Telefonica), Poland (Deutsche Telekom), Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro (all Telenor) have been confirmed for a launch this year.

leke2• 13 years ago

Folks, If you have a developer's version, will you be able to migrate away and flash a public version of the OS on the developer phone?

janjongboom2• 13 years ago

Already does. These phones run the same software version as the stable version of GeeksPhone developer preview phones.

leke2• 13 years ago

Ah great, then I can still try and pick up the GeeksPhone hardware -- Thanks :)

Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain at $3 a month

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