It’s already been almost three years now since Firefox OS, a new mobile operating system, has emerged in July 2012 from a project known as “Boot to Gecko”. It is developed by Mozilla, the non-profit entity responsible for the Firefox web browser.
The particular aspect of it is that Firefox OS is designed around HTML5 applications, JavaScript and open web APIs which can access the device’s hardware and provide full functionality just as a native app does on other OSes. The result is that the OS consists of Web apps which don’t need to be installed on the phone because they are accessed via the internet.
As it relies entirely on open standards, it differentiates itself from the other mobile operating systems which all contain proprietary code, even when talking about Android, where only the AOSP is open source, not the Google Play Services or the Google Apps.
There have already been about 13 incremental releases of the OS, the latest one being version 2.2.0, which is expected to move from a preview to a stable phase this May.
Although not many have heard of the Firefox OS, there are already more than a handful of devices which run it, some of which are even aimed at developers like the T2Mobile Flame, the Geeksphone or the ZTE Open C.
Even Alcatel has joined the party with their Onetouch FireC 4020D for the general public. More manufacturers will soon follow, like LG has done with their own FireFox OS device, the Fx0, which debuted in Japan in December 2014, so far being probably the most expensive phone running this OS, with its $414 price tag.
As the OS is pretty slender and is capable of running on even just 128MB of RAM, naturally Mozilla had in mind to create cheap usable phones for the markets in the developing countries from Europe and Latin America.
Recently the OS has also made its debut in Africa and the first Firefox OS handsets will make an appearance in Madagascar and Senegal this week.
The phones are branded with the Orange logo, thanks to a partnership between Mozilla organization and the cell phone carrier.
The Orange Klif Smartphone, an Alcatel rebranded device, follows Mozilla’s strategy of affordable phones with good enough specs and has a price tag of $40, which is even lower than the entry level Android devices of today. Even more, Mozilla has plans for an even cheaper phone expected to cost $25, aimed at customers from other parts of Africa and the Middle East.
The device has a dual core processor at 1 GHz, a 3.5″ display with 480x320 resolution, 256MB of RAM, a 2MP camera with LED flash and a battery with a capacity of 1300mAh.
Perhaps the most important aspect for the success of the Firefox OS until now has been Mozilla’s ability to raise the interest of OEMs and carriers for partnerships in order to bring to market devices powered by the OS. Already Firefox OS is doing better that Canonical’s Ubuntu Touch mobile OS, even though the latter looks more polished.
Image Source: Gadgets
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