Firefox OS Smartphones Arriving For Developers

Nerval's Lobster writes "For quite some time Mozilla has been working on Firefox OS, a lightweight mobile OS built in HTML5. Now it's whipped the curtain back from the first developer preview phones. The developer preview phones are unlocked, requiring the user insert their own SIM card. If those specs seem a little underpowered compared to other smartphones on the market, it's because Firefox OS is intended for lower-end smartphones; target markets include developing countries such as Brazil and China. (The first developer preview phones will be available in February.) The Firefox OS (once known as 'Boot to Gecko') is based on a handful of open APIs. The actual interface is highly reminiscent of Google Android and Apple iOS, with grids of icons linked to applications." The specs really aren't that bad; reader sfcrazy points out that they include the usual features baked into medium- and high-end phones these days: Wifi N, light and proximity sensors, and an accelerometer (though no mention of NFC).

Comments

Competition

[Machtyn]

This is to compete with the Winphone and Nokia markets. Microsoft has the idea to make WinMo flexible enough to work on high and low end phones and break into the Nokia dominated, but largely untapped, low-end market. Having several options is a good thing.

Re:Competition

[vlm]

This is to compete with the Winphone and Nokia markets.

Talk about aiming for a low market share. Can firefox break even if they only sell a thousand?

Re:Competition

[hjf]

Low-end? More low end than the sub-$200 Galaxy Ace? More low end than even the sub-$100 (!) android phones all over Latin America?

sheesh. I like it when people from the "first world" opinates on "developing markets" and "low end". (don't take it personal, previous poster, but i mean the devs and stuff).

I live in latin america. you know why people get smartphones? cause they can't afford, or don't even want computers. and they want chat and facebook and a smartphone gives them what they need (it even works when either power is out, or where there is no fixed internet service like cable or dsl). yes, "most"people live within reach of fixed internet service. and almost everyone has wifi if they got that (from my house to the city center, in 10 blocks, i mapped over 400 wifi networks in range!)

but internet service is slow to get to the "fastest growing" areas: the "outskirts" of the cities. over there it's 3G all the way

you know which smartphones they get? Galaxy S2 and S3. Milestone/2/3. Razr. Razr I. (most of them assembled in Argentina). Myself? I got an HTC sensation. back in 2010 they projected sales of 25.000 units of Milestone in argentina. it sold over 100.000. you had to be in a waiting list. now almost every phone they offer is a smartphone. basic phones are difficult to find.

i can only speak from experience. I don't know how good or bad other countries are. some countries are supposedly better (Chile), others worse (Bolivia). but smartphones are by no means unseen things here.

the big exception is the iphone, since Apple is simply not interested in this market (no idea why. the iphone 3G was available and it was a huge success). You can buy an imported, no-warranty iphone, but you can't get a subsidized one from a telco.

An OS built in HTML5?

[Kenja]

For some reason, I think that's not quite right. Perhaps the intent was to write "an OS with built in HTML5"?

Re:An OS built in HTML5?

[jlebar]

For some reason, I think [it's] not quite right [to say that FFOS is "an OS built in HTML5"]. Perhaps the intent was to write "an OS with built in HTML5"?

FFOS developer here.

The entire FFOS front-end is written in HTML5. That includes the homescreen and the task switcher. So "The Web" is the API that applications use to communicate with the system.

But there's of course plenty of C/C++ below that. To a first approximation, it's probably accurate to guess that parts of Android written in Java were re-written in JS for FFOS.

Re:An OS built in HTML5?

[ProzacPatient]

Being a developer (albeit not a FFOS developer) does anyone know how one can obtain one of these phones?
I'm under the assumption though that these preview "developer" phones are only available to a inner-circle FFOS developer clubhouse.

The simulator is nice and all but nothing beats hacking with the real hardware.

uh, what?

[poetmatt]

There is no winphone market, and the nokia market is steadily going away - as it has ever since they successfully put the MS plant into Nokia's executive staff in the first place.

The only sentence here of relevance is the last sentence: having several options is a good thing. The rest doesn't even exist.

Re:uh, what?

[Jeng]

you people are idiots... millions of phones sold each quarter and growing but FUCK YOU IM BITTER I REFUSE TO BELEIVE IT

Windows ME sold millions

Windows Vista sold millions

Windows 8 will sell millions

Millions of Zunes were sold

Would you consider any of them successes?

Re:uh, what?

[hjf]

The zune wasn't a failure. Its "failure" was the result of MS-hate from cocky web 2.0 apple bloggers. There is nothing technically wrong with it. It's just that no product, no matter how good it is, can stand the scoffing of turtleneck-wearing "journalists" who laugh at the choice of color. "DURRR WHO WOULD BUY A BROWN ZUNE?".

But it's perfectly ok to get a one-size-fits-all ipod.

*cue in "missing the point" zealots pointing out that ipod comes in several versions*

Re:uh, what?

[Charliemopps]

and right there was the failure of the Zune. Only apple customers are stupid enough to pay that kind of money for an MP3 player. Keep in mind that, at the time, you could pick up a dozen different off-brand MP3 players at walmart for under $100 and all of them operated in the same way: You plug them into your computer, a folder opens up, you drop in music. How we got to the point that the only way to upload to an apple device is with buggy proprietary software boggles my mind.

Re:uh, what?

[Zero__Kelvin]

The only flaw in your argument is that Linux is, in fact, a massively successful product on the desktop. I have used it for more than a decade, and would never intentionally use the massive desktop, server, and phone market failure known as Windows.

Re:uh, what?

[erroneus]

The reason why I want an Android car stereo is because:

1. I know they exist
2. I know I will be able to run my apps on it including the one I use with my OBD2 reader
3. I know I will be able to have TomTom or other GPS mapping software installed
4. I know I will be able to play all my music and video
5. I know it will be hackable so I can do things it can't do out of the box

Any proprietary type system will not offer those advantages.

DIY cell phone (from an arduino guy)

[TheGratefulNet]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellis/

I believe he's one of the arduino founders or principles.

don't know much about this - just saw it on the flickr stream - but it could be interesting. not android at all, but in a way, that could also be a good thing. sometimes you want a simple cell phone and just that.

(no connection; just saw the photo link from DAM)

Re:Innovation?

[CastrTroy]

You make the device cheaper by making the hardware cheaper. You make the hardware cheaper by giving it a slower CPU and less memory. However, taking the cheaper device and then running all the apps in HTML5+Javascript seems counter productive. The nice thing about the low end Nokia phones was that you could still get some pretty good performance out of the apps because the apps were all written in C. I guess that they could take HTML5+Javascript and compile that to something that could execute faster, but I doubt they are doing that.