Choice is great: Mozilla's $25 Firefox OS phones could loosen Android's grip on budget segment

Mozilla’s Firefox OS as a smartphone operating system has had a negligible impact on the market, ever since it got a retail release last year. Its devices usually launch without much fanfare, and certainly nothing grand like new Android, iPhone or Windows Phone releases. But unlike these operating systems, Firefox is raw and different. It’s hard to get users interested in new OSes as BlackBerry is finding to its detriment, but Firefox is highly flexible and embraces open standards unlike any other OS.   The OS launched in summer of 2013 with three phones, priced around $50 to $70, which are in available in 15 countries, and you can also buy the ZTE Open in India to jump on to the Firefox bandwagon. So the entry point starts quite low.   At Mobile World Congress, Mozilla unveiled plans to expand to additional markets in Latin America and eastern Europe, and chipset maker Spreadtrum also announced a blueprint for any phone maker to make $25 Firefox OS smartphones. This is the platform that Mozilla is using to reportedly talk to Indian manufacturers such as Spice and Intex to bring Firefox OS to India on a larger scale.   These days, manufacturers across the board are trying to market their entry-level phones as built for the first-time smartphone buyer.  The fact is, though, Android, iOS, BB 10 and Windows Phone are so far advanced that most first-time buyers don’t even know how to tap the full capability of the OS. Firefox is meant for just this crowd, making it easier to get apps and simple to use for non-practiced users.   That price, which roughly comes up to Rs 1,500, sounds incredible when you are thinking of a smartphone, even these days. Just today, we saw Karbonn launching a low-cost Android phone, which has similar specs to the Firefox OS phone, for under Rs 3,000 . You would be able to play games and use some messaging apps, and use basic multimedia capabilities, but Android phones typically offer terrible performance at such price points. It may have millions of apps, but not all of them will run smoothly on a low-end Android. That’s what Mozilla is trying to avoid with Firefox OS.   For example, you’d have to shell out Rs 6,999 for the Moto E, which in our opinion delivers the best Android experience at a low price point . That’s over Rs 5,000 more expensive than the $25 Firefox OS phone. Nokia Lumia 520, the base-level Windows Phone device, is currently retailing for slightly more than the Moto E.   Even when not considering Android or WP, buyers are faced with the option of Nokia Asha or any of the numerous feature phones in the market. The cheapest Nokia Asha touchscreen phone retails at around Rs 3,200, that’s double the amount one would have to pay for a low-end Firefox OS phones, if the $25 price is right. There’s really no comparable phone at that price.   [caption id=“attachment_225795” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] ZTE has been backing Firefox OS since the very beginning[/caption]   Firefox OS is built specifically for low-powered phones, and is optimised to run on hardware as low as a single-core processor . The phone gives users the basic experience, without the performance overhead. It’s meant to decentralise the app publishing process of the leading operating systems, by giving developers full freedom to publish Web apps. The idea behind Firefox OS is it’s a Web-first platform, and not apps-first. It uses the full suite of Web standards such as HTML 5, WebRTC or RTSP for live video streaming, to bring apps and or to convert web pages into apps.   There’s a handy advantage with this system. Unlike on iOS or Android, where you may have to download apps, with Firefox OS, you have instant access to all apps, since they are basically modified versions of the website. Firefox says its search-and-launch mechanism will at least partially rid the problem of searching for and installing apps. Mozilla says downloads will virtually be a thing of the past, and instead, the idea is to simply launch apps. It also means that developers don’t have to be bound by curation rules that most OSes have. A developer could publish any app for Firefox OS on the Firefox Marketplace , just as easily as they would make a webpage.   Mozilla says its currently making big changes to the OS , which will come to handsets over this year. Among the changes is one for the way users access recently used apps or the notification centre. In a bid to set itself apart from the likes of Android, Mozilla is working on making UI changes in the OS.   [caption id=“attachment_218815” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Major overhaul coming up[/caption]   Firefox is also working on a cross-platform sync service with Firefox Accounts, which was introduced with the radical Australis makeover . With Firefox Accounts, Mozilla can better integrate services including Firefox Marketplace, Firefox Sync, backup, storage, or even a service to help locate, message or wipe a phone if it were lost or stolen, according to the company. It would ensure your open tabs are synced across the phone and your PC.   The latest version of the OS, v 1.3, addresses some concerns such as POP3 email support, and NFC connectivity for interfacing and triggers. Firefox has also made improvements to the camera app, with support for continuous autofocus provided the hardware is present for such a feature. It’s surely adding a lot of things that are considered crucial in modern day smartphones, but in its own way.   Of course, the big questions are always about what one can do with the phone, the apps, games and utilities available. Here’s where Firefox OS could come undone. Sure, the Marketplace boasts popular apps such as Line, Twitter, Facebook and even Candy Crush, but it’s still a very underwhelming collection.   Android is clearly dominating the budget segment, and that’s never a good thing for consumers. Choice is great, and Mozilla is making it easier for new buyers to choose Firefox; it undoubtedly will have the lowest entry barrier among all its rivals.   The $25 phones might not be revolutionary enough to change the Indian smartphone market or to dethrone Android; no one thinks Firefox OS has the scalability to do that yet. But Firefox has the right idea of targetting first-time smartphone buyers, especially because it has the price tag to really go for it. For this audience, it matters little whether some hot messaging app is not on the Firefox OS. They want a taste of what’s possible. Firefox is hoping it can impress them with how much can be done in so little, which is something Android has yet to convince anyone about.