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Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

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Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#4
I am really looking forward to the impact that Firefox OS is going to have in the mobile market. There is definitely still space for a highly-featured low-priced smartphone and the HTML only is a plus for those not willing to put the time in learning how to program for Android or iOS, giving it a small edge apps-wise.

Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#5
Interesting, I think I'm interrested in getting one of these devices [1]. I'm wondering though if there are currently the only (preview) devices supporting Firefox OS? And if there are officially supported by Mozilla and will continue to officialy receive software updates in the near future? (I don't want to buy a device useless in 4 months).

[1] http://www.geeksphone.com/

Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#6
I have a feeling Firefox OS is going to be big. from what I've seen of YouTube demos the OS is quite responsive on modest hardware (gs2 and nexus s).

I've had no luck this week trying to build the OS for a gs2. I'm hopeful that I'll have more success compiling for a nexus s.

Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#7
We'll see how "good" it is. I'm very skeptical about a Javascript-heavy OS being as good as an Android one on the same hardware. If all things are equal, it shouldn't be. However, I suppose Firefox OS will be more "feature-free" in the beginning, and those HTML5 apps will be a lot simpler than the typical native app, and these two things might compensate for the slower speed of Javascript. We'll see.

Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#8
post #7

We'll see how "good" it is. I'm very skeptical about a Javascript-heavy OS being as good as an Android one on the same hardware. If all things are equal, it shouldn't be. However, I suppose Firefox OS will be more "feature-free" in the beginning, and those HTML5 apps will be a lot simpler than the typical native app, and these two things might compensate for the slower speed of Javascript. We'll see.

Well, Dalvik is not a speed deamon. I don't have any benchmarks on actual phone hardware available, but I can guess that javascript code will not run much slower on phone hardware than on desktop comparable desktop browsers, while Dalvik is a waaay slover than regular Java code on desktop.

Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#9
post #5

Interesting, I think I'm interrested in getting one of these devices [1]. I'm wondering though if there are currently the only (preview) devices supporting Firefox OS? And if there are officially supported by Mozilla and will continue to officialy receive software updates in the near future? (I don't want to buy a device useless in 4 months). [1] http://www.geeksphone.com/

I bought a keon when the shop first opened and received it last week. Since I've had it, I was able to update the OS on the phone itself. I didn't even need to plug it into a PC. It was slick.

Re: Firefox OS puts a good $50 smartphone within reach

#10
Whether the driving force is Firefox OS, Android, Windows, hardware components or a combination of everything, I am hopeful about the idea of a good $50 smartphone.

I had a conversation with someone about a year ago that made an impact on me. In terms of penetrating down the income ladder to those with the lowest income in the least developed places, mobile phones may have gone farther than anything else. Basic technology like electricity, cars/buses/trains, plumbing, sewage, roads.. These things penetrate down to the lowest 20-30 percentiles or so. Very few things make it farther down.

Mobile phones, made it farther down the income ladder in ten years than some technologies have regardless in thousands of ears. Around 95, mobile phones were for wall street yuppies. By 2005 subsistence farmers in failed states have access to them.

Smartphones tablets are similar enough to follow the same path path. Mobile phones shave had a big effect on the worlds poorest. Think of what access to the internet could do.

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