Mozilla means business with the mid-range KDDI Fx0 Firefox phone

By Malarie Gokey December 23, 2014

japan kddi fx0 firefox phone news os

It isn’t every day you see a Firefox phone, and it’s even rarer to find one with decent specifications. Mozilla’s Firefox OS runs Web apps on mobile devices and sets the Firefox Web browser as default. A handful of Firefox OS devices are available in European, Asian, and South American countries, but so far not one of them has powerful specifications. Until now, that is. Japan’s KDDI Fx0 is a solid, mid-range Firefox smartphone.

Wireless carrier KDDI announced the Fx0 in conjunction with Mozilla just a few days before its Christmas Day launch date. The Fx0 is the first Firefox phone to support 4G LTE, sport a relatively fast Qualcomm processor, and feature an HD screen. While it’s certainly not the high-end monster phone Mozilla would have you believe, the Fx0 is the most powerful Firefox phone to date.

The Fx0 comes with a 4.7-inch IPS HD screen, and is powered by a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor along with 1.5GB of RAM. Users will have 16GB of storage to fill up before popping in a MicroSDXC card into the phone for more space. An 8-megapixel back camera and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera round out the mid-range specs. The entire device gets its juice from a 2,370mAh battery.

firefox-os-phone

Although a Firefox phone with mid-range specs is enough of a talking point already, the Fx0’s design is sure to turn some heads. The phone’s casing is completely transparent, giving you an unobstructed view of all the muted gold-brushed components. The circuitry, battery pack, and just about everything else is clearly visible. The result is a chic, mechanical device that looks like a fancy Swiss watch that lets you see its movement in action.

No price was mentioned, but if Mozilla sticks to its guns, the Fx0 should be a relatively affordable device when it arrives in the carrier’s online shop on December 25. Other shops and retailers will receive the phone on January 6, 2015.

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Mobile

Mozilla brings $25 Firefox smartphones to India and Indonesia

cheap firefox smartphones india indonesia mozilla spreadtrum 25 phone

Mozilla is reaching out to billions of people in India and Indonesia who believe that smartphone technology is beyond their financial means. Mozilla will bring its open Firefox OS to these countries in the form of a $25 smartphone with a Spreadtrum processor onboard. The smartphone will be anything if not simple, but it will offer a selection of apps, web browsing, and most of the other core features typical of a mobile OS experience.
Indian companies Index and Spice will build the $25 smartphones and then sell them in the next few months. Executives from both companies expressed their excitement about the new Firefox phones in a statement published by Mozilla on Tuesday.
“Intex is excited to announce its association with Mozilla which will enable us to develop unparalleled smart devices on the latest Firefox OS platform," said Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, the head of mobile for Intex Technologies. “The platform will give us an edge in upgrading buyers from feature phones to smartphones while making it affordable for the mass market.”
Dilip Modi, the Co-Founder & CEO of Spice, agreed that Firefox OS would increase the average Indian's access to smartphone technology.
“We have been the technology innovators in India’s telecom industry and are pleased to introduce Firefox OS in India through our smartphones to cater to the country’s masses. This partnership with Mozilla showcases our commitment to providing the best technological innovations first-hand to our customers," he said, adding that "[t]hese phones will be affordably priced to ensure everyone can enjoy and experience the power of the Firefox OS phone.”
Although Firefox OS smartphones may not be as powerful as their low-cost Android competitors, their price point is hard to beat. In the United States, Firefox OS smartphones cost as little as $60. That number is being reduced by more than 50 percent in India and Indonesia, making the devices available to those who cannot afford to spend $100 on a low-cost Android smartphone, or more on a premium, high-end device like the iPhone os Samsung Galaxy lineup.
Firefox OS will allow these first-time smartphone users to browse the web and use a few of the web-based apps available on the OS. There may not be many apps available on Firefox OS, but for someone who's never had a smartphone before, that may be just fine. Mozilla hopes to challenge Android in the low-end smartphone market by undercutting other manufacturers' prices and advocating for an open mobile OS ecosystem. The company is also in talks with China about bringing Firefox OS devices to the Chinese people.
So far, Mozilla has launched several low-cost smartphones with Firefox OS onboard, including the $100 ZTE Open C. The company will release the Alcatel One Touch Fire E and the ZTE Open II this summer. These phones have had limited success in Europe and the United States, but Mozilla doesn't seem to be discouraged. Perhaps emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, and China will be more accepting of Firefox OS smartphones.

Mobile

These early Firefox OS 2.0 screenshots look awesome, but very familiar

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Firefox OS has always been more functional than pretty, but if these images do end up being representative of the OS’s future, then users could be in for a treat. The design is very flat, less cluttered, and more minimalistic. In the modern smartphone world, these are all good things. We think it looks excellent, but it does seem like someone at Mozilla has been looking at iOS 7 with envious eyes.
The influence of Apple’s redesigned operating system is obvious, particularly on the lock screen notifications, along with the use of solid colors and flat, square boxes. The blog post’s author says Mozilla is already working on version 2.0 of Firefox OS, and that what we’re seeing is a “design preview,” and adds it’s only an “outlook” of the final design. This may mean we’ll see some changes before release.
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Such a drastic overhaul of Firefox OS’s style could be exactly what it needs to combat Android and Windows Phone, and we’re excited to see if this look makes it through to the final version.

Mobile

Firefox OS returns with new mid-range devices, $25 smartphone and more

firefox os returns 25 smartphone mwc 2014

We haven't heard much about Mozilla's mobile creation Firefox OS lately. We took it for a test drive back in December and while it was an interesting experience, it still had a long way to go. Mozilla is ready for the next step though, and has announced a slew of news about Firefox OS at MWC, including both new high-end Firefox OS devices by ZTE, as well as a ridiculously cheap $25 smartphone design.
For those who have never heard of Firefox OS, don't be too surprised you haven't: This mobile OS from the makers of Firefox has only been on the market for a year now, and so far the only three phones that run it are not available in the United States. America will remain out of Mozilla's picture for new markets this year. Again, the focus is on developing countries, where price is everything. At its Keynote event, Mozilla announced partnerships with carriers to launch Firefox OS devices in a number of countries in Eastern Europe and Central America, including Croatia, The Czech Republic, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
Along with these markets, Mozilla announced plans for new devices along with a new $25 smartphone design. The devices, seven in total, include LG, ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel OneTouch as manufacturers. The ZTE Open C will be featuring a Qualcomm 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 4-inch display. This hardware is certainly mid-range and nothing compared to the latest iPhone or Galaxy devices, but Mozilla isn't looking to release high-end smartphones into price-conscious countries.
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Mozilla offered a lot of interesting news for its MWC keynote, and it's clear the company still has its eyes set on everywhere but the United States. We'll have to wait and see if it can make a dent in a market with the power of really cheap smartphones.