At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, many technology enthusiasts were waiting for Samsung to launch one of the most awaited smartphones of the year – Samsung Galaxy S5 – but the maker of Firefox internet browser also stole the show on the opening day of the event.
Mozilla announced a set of new devices running its all new Firefox OS but the unveiling of a prototype developed in partnership with Chinese chipset-maker Spreadtrum broke all the cost of $25.
With the launch of this new low-cost prototype, Mozilla is aiming to cover emerging markets like India where buyers for low-cost ‘feature’ phones are available in huge numbers when compared to the buyers who prefer to spend a good amount on phones.
It’s not like people in these market are not able to enjoy the high-end smartphones, but mostly these buyers are forced to carry long-contracted devices in order to subsidize the device cost. However, the Firefox OS devices can be seen as the game changer.
The Mozilla-Spreadtrum baby is definitely not going to be something like today’s Galaxies, Experia’s or iPhones but at the price it is being offered; it is going to rock certain sections or the world market.
The smartphone will be able to run basic applications and the screen will not be bigger than 3 or 3.5 inch because of the strength of the CPU. The chipset doesn’t support LTE, but WCDMA and EDGE are supported. The CPU also comes with support for WiFi, Bluetooth, camera and FM Radio.
Apart from Spreadtrum, Firefox OS is being preferred by many other international smartphone makers; and ZTE is the first one to be named.
ZTE, who released Firefox OS based ZTE Open at last year’s MWC, announced two new devices based on the operating system. Open C and Open II are the two new smartphones that are going to give some competition to some Android devices.
The Open C comes with a 4 inch screen sporting a WVGA (800×480) display. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz, and is supported by 512MB RAM. When it comes to storage, it comes with 4 GB of internal memory. There is only one camera of 3 megapixel and the device is juiced up by a decent 1400mAh battery. The Open C will be initially launched in Venezuela and Uruguay during mid-2014.
The Open II is a downgraded version of Open C in all the aspects as it sports a 3.5-inch, HVGA (480×320) display with the same processor. The RAM and the internal memory are cut by half (256MB RAM, 2GB internal memory). The camera is of 2 megapixel and the battery has only 1150 mAh.
Following the new trend in mobile operating system, Alcatel OneTouch also announced four new devices – Fire C, Fire E and Fire S (all smartphones), and Fire 7 (tablet).
We will be bringing more news and updates from the Mobile World Congress corridors, so stay tuned.
