Mozilla and Partners Launch First Firefox OS Smartphones In Europe.Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica will release the first Firefox OS devices, the ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fire and the ZTE Open.
Spain's Telefonica is offering the world's first smartphone with the Firefox operating system to compete with devices running Google Android and Apple iOS.The ZTE Open smartphone goes on sale in Spain this week for 69 euros (about $90) and will soon be available in several Latin American countries.
The device is aimed at the youth market and at people who are new to
smartphones, Telefonica's chief of product development, Carlos Domingo,
said during a Madrid press conference where he was joined by executives
from Mozilla and telephone-maker ZTE.
Equipped with a 3.5-inch
320x480-pixel touchscreen, the ZTE Open includes a 3.2-megapixel camera,
256MB RAM and 512MB flash storage enhanced with a 4GB microSD card that
comes as part of the package.
The purchase price includes 30 euros ($39) of pay-as-you-go credit.
The
ZTE Open is fully integrated with Facebook and the Spain-based social
network Tuenti and talks are on about incorporating the WhatsApp
instant-messaging service, Telefonica said.
Commenting on the
launch, Luis Miguel Gilperez, CEO of Telefonica Espana, said, "We
believe that smartphones need to be more open and that the web is the
platform for making this possible. Consumers should not be locked to any
one system but have the choice to consume the content they want and the
flexibility to be able to take it with them when they change devices.
This first open web device marks a significant milestone in making this
possible. This is just the beginning as we plan to bring a wide range of
Firefox OS devices to our customers."
The ZTE Open is the first
of a number of Firefox OS devices that will be launched by Telefonica
this year, offering the benefits of this new open operating system
across a range of different price points. Other device manufacturers
supporting Firefox OS include Alcatel OneTouch, LG, Huawei and Sony.
Mozilla
executives said the ZTE Open is the "first chapter" in what they expect
to be a long project, one that is already attracting interest from many
other telecommunications companies.
Source: NDTV
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