Firefox OS Phones Are Coming To Africa
Mozilla had decided to make their own operating system, the Firefox OS and it looks like we might catch the fever too soon, seeing as they have partnered with Airtel, MTN South Africa and Tigo in Tanzania so far to come to Africa. Details of when exactly are not yet clear.
The new Firefox OS update, the 2.0, has even been installed on a new smartphone made by LG called the FxO, the first Japanese phone to ever run on Firefox. The phone is made of transparent material that allows you to see its components, as world-famous designer, Tokujin Yoshioka designed the Fx0 to make sure the openness, freedom and transparency that are core to the Mozilla mission and values of Firefox OS, are shown in the device, as stated in the Mozilla Blog.
According to Phonearena, the phone as has a low price tag most importantly, offering the most advanced specs of any Firefox handset to date, including: a 4.7-inch display with 720 x 1280 pixels, LTE connectivity, 8 MP rear camera, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of expandable storage space. Talk about seeing right through this OS!
The FxO will run Firefox’s 2.0 version and you can see more of this in this clip below:
Li Gong, president of Mozilla said “Firefox OS has proven this by re-defining the ultra-low-cost category, now including the lowest-ever priced smartphone. On the other end of the spectrum, we have seen mid-range and will soon see high-end Firefox OS smartphones. This year, Firefox OS has successfully brought different experiences for different people, but has introduced choice for everyone.”
Unfortunately that particular phone, the FxO will not be sold outside of Japan so if you want one, you may have to order it from a store there. There are no details yet on whether the phone is carrier-locked.
If this doesn’t change your mind about what OS to use on your mobile or the next phone to get, I don’t know what will.
Companies in the tech world seem to be diversifying their products and services to improve their chances of staying in the game. Innovation is at play here. LG has only recently seen a rise in buyer patterns of their phones when it came to their smartphones like the G2 and G3, and their household equipment like Fridges, washing machines and TVs.
How Firefox will measure up against Andorid, BlackBerry or iOS is still yet to be seen as more Firefox phones with the Firefox OS are rolled out to Africa (after obviously being approved by the relevant tech authorities e.g ZICTA), and most excitedly Techtrends Zambia’s eager hands.
Image Credit: Phonearena
