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First Firefox Mobile OS Phones Announced

Posted by samzenpus on from the in-the-beginning dept.

judgecorp writes "The first devices running Firefox Mobile OS, originally known as Boot to Gecko, have been announced. TCL and ZTE are making the phones, which will show up on Brazil's Telefonica Vivo network. Other operators are planning to give the phones a try. From their blog: 'Device manufacturers TCL Communication Technology (under the Alcatel One Touch brand) and ZTE today announced their intentions to manufacture the first devices to feature the new Firefox OS, using Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm Incorporated, the leader in smartphone platforms. The first Firefox OS powered devices are expected to launch commercially in Brazil in early 2013 through Telefónica’s commercial brand, Vivo.'"

14 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. oh great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    now you need to upgrade your phone every six weeks instead of two years...

    lovely.

    1. Re:oh great by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but on the other hand while you may be stuck with your iPhone 4, I'll be using my fPhone 23. Uh, wait, hold on, sorry fPhone 24.

      Crap, need to reboot the phone, I've used up all its memory again...

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:oh great by chrb · · Score: 5, Informative

      You jest, but one of the interesting things about Boot 2 Gecko is that all the apps are just localled cached web apps, which means that they get "updated" seamlessly without having to interact with an app store or package manager. You get all of the updating advantages of a web app like Google Docs or Gmail, in that installation and upgrading is completely invisible to the user. Even the included apps (the launcher, the dialler, photo viewer, web browser, etc.), which would be native on any other platform, are all just web apps loaded from a particular URL - you can access the same URL using Firefox on a desktop PC, or from an Android phone running Firefox Mobile, and those apps will run. It's the cross platform solution that eliminates the need for native code (think Phone Gap).

      Mozilla is aiming to produce a platform that will make apps just an extension of the web. And to standardize everything that they need to do, so that other platforms can implement their APIs. Is it possible for everything? Perhaps not. Does it feel like we are throwing away decades of work on native code? Perhaps, but the web stack of HTML and Javascript is the only cross-platform, globally accepted solution we have. Google tried to add native code to Chrome - it's impressive, it works, but nobody's using it. We had Java applets on the web, but those are effectively dead now. There are projects now that can compile from native code to Javascript - see this amazing demo of Sauerbraten in Javascript running with accelerated WebGL. It's not difficult to imagine a world where Javascript is basically the common bytecode, and with bridges to native APIs it becomes possible to access all hardware, do anything, from a web app that is running on any platform, be it iOS, Windows, Android, Linux, etc.

      As I wrote in another comment: the current situation with apps is a bit of a throwback - can you imagine if viewing a web site required you to install it through an app store? And for an author, updating their web site required them to push their site to Dell, who would then approve it and push it out to people with Dell computers? But you need a different web site for people with Asus computers, and you have to push your Asus-build site to them for approval and redistribution? It's crazy, if that were the situation with the web it would've never taken off. Making apps more like the web, or expanding the web to consume apps, whichever way you look at it, is a good thing.

  2. Do we need another mobile OS? by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Serious question.

    Besides the heavyweight iOS and Android, there are Bada, Symbian, Tizen, Windows Mobile/Phone, RIM...

    Ah crap, full list here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system

    Do we really need another OS with a .0001 market share?

    1. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, any other stupid questions?

      More competition is better, without it you get the stagnation that desktops have been since the 90s.

    2. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by wiedzmin · · Score: 3

      At some point iPhone wasn't even a blip on the RIM's radar...

      --
      Bow before me, for I am root.
    3. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by cpu6502 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not an OS. Just the Firefox browser running like an OS. "Is this going to be yet another platform for developers to code for?
      "No..... We don't want this work to lead to applications that only run atop one platform, or only run in Firefox. That's an important difference between what we're doing and proprietary mobile stacks today: we don't seek a competitive advantage for Mozilla, we seek a competitive advantage for the Web." Read more here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/b2g/faq/

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
    4. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by ArhcAngel · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Funny...This comic seems to be getting a lot of use lately.

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    5. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by Amouth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      that's only because RIM's radar was broken - everyone elses radar saw it coming before Apple even confirmed it's existence.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    6. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by pmathew · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If they play their cards right it wont be a .0001% . We need an OS out of the clutches of microsoft, google and apple,from somebody we trust more with our personal data . So far Firefox is the Mr. Clean and that is a brand image it has worldwide . Also using a standard compliant language (html) for development they will attract a lot of developers as learning curve may be small ( I hope so) . RIM recognized the need for momentum with apps when they started designing QNX based blackberry OS but they chose the alternative of android emulation i guess. But somehow i feel that choice of Mozilla is better . With Regards to Bada Tizen et al , i dont think anybody other than avid tech readers may have heard of them however good they may be . But even a layman may be willing to try something from makers of firefox . Branding is what makes selling a tad lot easier . And if quality is good people should stick .

    7. Re:Do we need another mobile OS? by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, it was. MS Monopolized the market, then sucked out all the profit. This meant that hardware vendors did not have the money to take risks.

  3. Commitment? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I didn't learn from TFAs what Mozilla's commitment is to this. It seems like a good idea, but Mozilla has such a long history of abandoning really good ideas when they turn out not to be easy.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  4. Definitely interested by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My experience with Android has been less than stellar to put it kindly and I don't quite feel up to paying for an iphone so this will definitely be something I look at. Plus it would be nice to support someone who isn't interested in locking me in or stealing all my data to sell me stuff.

  5. WebOS achilles heel? by vivek7006 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The last OS based on HTML (WebKit to be more specific) was WebOS, and was deemed slow because of that http://nyti.ms/KOMpBx. Wouldnt a HTML5 based OS face the same hurdles?