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$70 in the US. When the FirefoxOS developer device was posted on here some time ago half the comments were about how it was missing feature X or Y that Android
by Zikes 12y ago
$70 in the US.
When the FirefoxOS developer device was posted on here some time ago half the comments were about how it was missing feature X or Y that Android or iPhone has had for ages, and therefore it just couldn't compete.
A $70 price point doesn't put them in competition with other smart phones, it puts Mozilla at the fore of a new class of customer.
- yitchelle 12y agoAgree with you here. At this price point, smart phone is starting to be a commodity item, just like the shirt you are wearing, like the cup of coffee you drank this morning or like that piece of apple you ate. Just need for the service provider to give ground breaking plans. Imagine having a flat data plan for $5/month at LTE speed with this type of smart phone.
- mrbill 12y agoThis type of phone is going to have 3G data at most.
- jhatax 12y agoThis phone lacking 4G shouldn't be a show-stopper in India, where most of the network providers only have 3G networks deployed. Reliance has announced a 4G network, but it hasn't been deployed yet.
- soapdog 12y agoFirst reference design of this device didn't had 3G, it had 2G and WIFI. This is a $25 dollars phone, there is a limit on the chips you can afford with that amount of F.O.B.
- outside1234 12y ago"flat data plan for $5/month at LTE speed with this type of smart phone" Flat data plans are gone forever I'm afraid. We might get more data for less money over time but there is no way they are going back to unmetered data.
- arboroia 12y agoNot sure how it is in the USA, but unmetered data plans do exist - here in Ireland it's the equivalent of ~$27 for unmetered 4G data (with a certain limited number of calls and texts included)
- maccard 12y agoYou're obviously in the US I take it? I'm in ireland and have a UK sim card too. Both my providers (granted, same provider in both countries) give me unlimited data, for 20 euro/25 pounds a month. I also get calls and texts included in that.
- yitchelle 12y agoUn-metered data in Germany as well. Only the speed gets throttled when I reached my quota. This is not much of a problem with so many open wifi access points around these days.
- batuhanicoz 12y agoSame thing here in Turkey with Vodafone. Last time I've used that plan it was 9 liras/3$ a month.
- andor 12y agoOnly the speed gets throttled ...by a factor of >100, which narrows down the use cases a lot. They don't completely turn off your internet, but they turn off >99%.
- rhelmer 12y agoWhere do you see $70? The article talks about current phones that you can buy right now at that price - those are different from the new $25 phones (which will be sold in India in "the next few months" also according to the article): "The current handsets, which are sold via eBay, retail at £59.99 in the UK, or $69.99 in the US."
- valarauca1 12y agoThe latest round of limited production developer phones sold for $70 usd each.
- soapdog 12y agoThis is not a limited run or a developer phone. This is a phone for the end user in the entry level class who can't afford a more expensive device.
- akgerber 12y agoMoto E is US$130 now, and will likely go down a decent amount when it's not brand new.
- soapdog 12y agoThis phone is not for the U.S. for example here in Brazil phones are much more expensive, an iPhone will go for U$1500 or even U$2000... The $25 phone in the title is aimed for India, a whole different market with different price points and mechanics.
- caryme 12y agoI just bought a $69 Nokia Lumia 521 (Windows Phone) off contract. Mozilla isn't at the forefront here - both Nokia/Microsoft and Motorola are driving down the off-contract price point.
- Gustomaximus 12y ago$25 for a smartphone is a massive step forward in accessibility on $69 when you consider these guys might be earning $60 a month.
- m1sta_ 12y agoCan I ask where? At that price I'll grab one too.
- TheAnimus 12y agoThese phones are actually pretty damned decent for the money! I'm looking to equip everyone in our startup with a 'company' phone, that is to say one that I can wipe remotely without anyone being upset. Once 8.1 is out, the 521 will allow me to put a secure VPN connection, easily toggleable, has a good enough for hell RDP client running some powershell. I can also fairly easily make something to use WMI to query a bunch of important details for our prod environments. That's really not a bad price point for such a device.
- codezero 12y agoThe problem that has plagued these inexpensive phones is that you're not usually selling to a typical "consumer." That is, the people who buy these phones, won't buy much else, so it will hurt the ecosystem in the long run. This happened to Palm with the Pre and Pixi. I created some apps for it and it was clear that the demographic wasn't shelling out money for apps or anything else, this makes it really unattractive as a platform for developers.
- fred_durst 12y agoI think you might be assuming Mozilla is trying to create a captive app ecosystem. The idea is that Mozilla will work with standard web technologies and apply them to the phone. The demographic in this case would be the same demographic that uses the web not Firefox OS specifically.
- codezero 12y agoHm, no, my point is that in order to be successful the platform needs an economy. Just producing cheap phones doesn't create an economy.
- vertex-four 12y agoWell, specifically, it needs developers and it needs manufacturers. As it's an open-source project stewarded by Mozilla, it will likely have developers at least until Mozilla run out of funding, and it might even survive that if they can get enough outside developers involved. Manufacturers are a bit more tricky, but on the other hand, there's always been manufacturers of cheap phones and there likely always will be.
- codezero 12y agoWell, to get my point across further, it needs customers willing to pay for content in the ecosystem. Developers may be there but they won't sustain a presence if they can't make enough money to make it worth their while, so unless Mozilla is going to pay them for premium apps, they will need an audience that is willing to buy them. This generally means that targeting the lowest end of the market isn't a great idea unless you are trying to make money off the sale of the device alone and not ongoing services like apps.
- soapdog 12y agoMozilla is not selling phones in the U.S. Mozilla doesn't actually sell phones. Carriers and Factories sell phones. The $70 phone you mention is being sold by ZTE using Mozilla Firefox OS as its system.
- higherpurpose 12y agoThat's not the phone being mentioned here. There are multiple Firefox OS models.