﻿ Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach | ZDNet

Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach


The GeeksPhone "Keon" Firefox OS phone sitting on the box it came in, sitting on the desk I sit at. (Image: Matt Baxter-Reynolds)











I liked it.















However, go ahead and Google "no brand Android phones", and see what you can find. Click through to Alibaba.com, and you can buy a 4-inch Android phone with an ex-factory price of $40.






Topic: Smartphones



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  • Start manning the pumps

    Nokia is losing the low end and is still nowhere in the high end. They are up against entrenched leaders (iOS and Android) in the high end and apparently have nothing to compete with Android, and soon Ubuntu and Firefox in the low end.

    Nokia gambled on the wrong horse. As I see it, MS/Windows is in a sense a damaged brand, which people are not clamoring for in mobile. You could call it karma, and MS is doing nothing to fix it with Ballmer at the helm; witness the Windows 8 debacle and the apparent on-going finger pointing and strong arming of competitors and partners.

    The world does not need MS to succeed in mobile, and a decline in their desktop dominance would also be helpful.

    I feel for Nokia, but in this fast changing world, falling asleep at the switch for even a few moments can prove fatal.
    • you have too much

      Bitterness inside of you. Eat a cake, it'll be better.
      Throw All The Things
      • He can't eat the cake.

        He's lactose intolerant.

        That's why he's always so bitter.
        • Firefox OS will dance on Nokia's grave.

          Nokia is dead. Nokia has an appalling strategy.

          Guided by the two biggest fools in the business. The person who killed Nokia is CEO Stephen Elop, but he is just a proxy for the next biggest fool, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer.

          Ballmer comes from the Microsoft old-school, and is utterly unsuited to manage today's technology. Ballmer hates open-source software. He once described Linux as "a cancer".

          Now look what's happening. Open-source software, be it Android, Firefox OS or Webkit, is eating Microsoft's lunch. Despite the collapse of Windows 8 and Windows Phone, Ballmer is set in his old ways and can't change his attitude.

          This isn't rocket science. A simple and effective operating system like Firefox OS will be immensely popular in developing nations, and possibly in developed nations too, where people want value for money and/or long battery life.

          After Firefox OS becomes established in phones, there's no doubt it will then be applied to larger form factors, like tablets and laptops.
          • Must be the year of Linux again.

            It's the year of Linux every year, after all.
          • Have you been living in a cave?

            Even if you add up the sales of all forms of Windows, desktop + tablet + phone, it's still considerably less than sales of Android now.

            You do know Android has a Linux kernel, right?
          • I like Android, I really do.

            But it isn't a "true" Linux operating.

            A true Linux OS would be something like Ubuntu, or DSL.

            There are a couple of articles about it somewhere around the internet, so you can search it up yourself.
          • Oh android is Linux now?

            I guess we can stop telling people how secure Linux is then right? Or is it only Linux when you want to inflate sales numbers?
          • Re: Must be the year of Linux again.

            Considering Linux is now outshipping Windows about 2:1, the "year of Linux" happened a long time ago.
          • Yes. Yes it is, afterall.

            It has been the year of Linux for quite some time now. Success is not merely measured by units sold or profit margins alone. Survivability and sustainability is the true, ultimate measure of success. The dinosaurs were the most successful species on the planet for quite a while. I'm sure no one at ZDnet would have given the mammals much credit for being a successful up and coming species if it had been around to put out useless predictions at the time.
          • the dinosaurs are not dead

            the birds are still flying after all.
    • Didn't you claim at once that you are platform agnostic

      and never hated Microsoft? Ok, I got it you were just pretending that time, but you just showed your real jealousy and hatred now. So as per your words, you are a paid shill to spew hatred towards Microsoft. Moving on.
      Ram U
      • Re: and never hated Microsoft?

        Strange how a legitimate comment about the state of the mobile industry is automatically (mis)construed by some as "hating" the company that happens to be on the losing end.
        • Hating, it is...

          D.T.Long stated "The world does not need MS to succeed in mobile, and a decline in their desktop dominance would also be helpful." This sure sounds like anti-ms to me. If he said something like "The more competition and choices, the better for the consumer", that would sound neutral to me, but he basically hopes ms fails, but feels sorry for Nokia.
      • Interesting that only after MS started it'sTE program

        hiring shills to bad mouth competing products and began bribing bloggers to write favorable reviews about MS products that no one can say anything negative about MS and not be accused of being a shill for the other side.

        "What other side?" is the question here. Who has the money to pay people to point out MS problems/failures and why would they bother when people will gladly do so for free?
        • "What other side?"

          I'm sorry, since when do you have to get paid to root for "the other side"? Someone better tell all those sports fans to check the mailbox for their check.
      • How about virus agnostic?

        Ever read a post here by a Linux user complaining about getting infected?

        There are many valid reasons for hating Microsoft and their abuse of humanity.
        • Isn't this article about a Phone OS?

          I don't recall ever reading about an infected windows phone. Android on the other hand...
        • How about virus agnostic?

          Start educate, first read about How about Linux/Chapro.A
          :::Apache is being used to carry out these attacks, injecting malicious content into web pages served by an infected Linux server, without the knowledge of the website owner. Although the malware can serve practically any type of content, in this specific case it installs a variant of Win32/Zbot, malware designed to steal information from online banking customers:::::

          In short linux servers are infected by Linux viruses which infect other systems and steal data. Following your words: There are many valid reasons for hating Linux and their abuse of humanity.
    • I'm not sure I would put Ubuntu

      in the low end category because the devices required to run Ubuntu Touch and the potential app ecosystem that will be available upon public launch. Don't for get that Canonical is targeting enterprise first and consumers second with Ubuntu Touch.

      I do agree that Nokia bet on the wrong pony in this race. If Nokia can not score a big hit very soon they may as well just let Microsoft absorb them into the abyss.