4 ms·

At this point, I think Mozilla really needs to: 1) launch a high end phone, capable of competing in specs with the Nexus 5 and the like; 2) release the first Fi

by zedr 12y ago

At this point, I think Mozilla really needs to: 1) launch a high end phone, capable of competing in specs with the Nexus 5 and the like; 2) release the first Firefox-OS tablet, which would be a prove very valuable to kiosks.

danohuiginn 12y ago
What is the advantage of releasing a high-end phone? They've made a sensible strategic choice to target a low-end market -- probably the place where firefox-os has the best chance of competing with Android. Trying to have a high-end flagship would dilute their branding and divert their dev efforts.
- Touche 12y ago
  > What is the advantage of releasing a high-end phone? Developers use high end phones.
  - oe 12y ago
    Developers would be better off trying their apps on a $25 phone. Of course you might want to use a more powerful device for development, but the risk there is that low-end testing and code optimisation is left as a last minute step.
doublec 12y ago
FxOS tablets already exist [1]. The Flame and ZTE Open C are higher end devices than the device talked about in the OP. Not quite Nexus 5 level (more Nexus S I think?) but are mid-range. I'd like to see more pushing the envelope of what HTML applications on mobile devices are capable of. Currently devices use the Facebook, Mobile and YouTube mobile sites. These don't make great use of HTML APIs. There is little in the way of offline support for example. I'd like to see developers, or Mozilla, provide versions of these applications that are equivalent to native. I don't think there is much missing in the web platform to make this difficult. [1] http://benjaminkerensa.com/2014/05/02/unboxing-first-firefox-os-tablet http://benjaminkerensa.com/2014/05/02/unboxing-first-firefox...
bryanlarsen 12y ago
Firefox OS has a huge advantage when running on low-memory phones. The most memory intensive thing typically run on a low-end phone is the web browser. (Or an app that wraps a browser, like Facebook). So the ability to run a web browser is the limiting factor. Every other OS has to have enough memory to run a GUI + a browser. Since Firefox OS uses the browser for its GUI, it theoretically can run smoother in 128MB or 256MB of RAM than any mainstream smartphone OS. IMO, Firefox should concentrate on the areas where it's intrinsic advantages lie.
- pjmlp 12y ago
  Ever heard of Series30, Series40 and Symbian mobiles? Native apps + browser, best of both worlds.
  - jsudhams 12y ago
    i agree. I bought one of these (Intex) instead Nokia 109 and i regret the decision now. The phone is useless even for basic phone purpose. But hey i am now using twitter device. The battery come for about 4 hours with nay app running.
  - bryanlarsen 12y ago
    I did have the word "theoretical" in my post. An "Opera OS" phone could probably work with 64MB...
- zelos 12y ago
  That doesn't seem to be the case at all according to the ArsTechnica review: 128MB cripples the phone to the point of near-useless. The original iPhone had 128MB RAM.
  - bryanlarsen 12y ago
    The native apps on the original iPhone were incredible. The browser, not so much. Worlds better than the competition from 2007, but in 2014 you would certainly notice the extremely slow Javascript interpreter, the missing HTML5 capabilities, the missing phone API's, and the inability to hold more than one web page in memory simultaneously.
serf 12y ago
one of the nice things about their current position is that the hardware catches a lot of the blame for the overall experience. People expect next to nothing from these phones due to their price, and when they work better than was ever expected it looks favorable. it may be in the interest of firefox-os to compete with the low-end market for the time being, where expectations are low, while polishing the OS for release on a high-end phone when high-end features are thought out.

by zedr 12y ago

danohuiginn 12y ago

What is the advantage of releasing a high-end phone? They've made a sensible strategic choice to target a low-end market -- probably the place where firefox-os has the best chance of competing with Android. Trying to have a high-end flagship would dilute their branding and divert their dev efforts.

Touche 12y ago
> What is the advantage of releasing a high-end phone? Developers use high end phones.
- oe 12y ago
  Developers would be better off trying their apps on a $25 phone. Of course you might want to use a more powerful device for development, but the risk there is that low-end testing and code optimisation is left as a last minute step.

doublec 12y ago

FxOS tablets already exist [1]. The Flame and ZTE Open C are higher end devices than the device talked about in the OP. Not quite Nexus 5 level (more Nexus S I think?) but are mid-range. I'd like to see more pushing the envelope of what HTML applications on mobile devices are capable of. Currently devices use the Facebook, Mobile and YouTube mobile sites. These don't make great use of HTML APIs. There is little in the way of offline support for example. I'd like to see developers, or Mozilla, provide versions of these applications that are equivalent to native. I don't think there is much missing in the web platform to make this difficult. [1] http://benjaminkerensa.com/2014/05/02/unboxing-first-firefox-os-tablet http://benjaminkerensa.com/2014/05/02/unboxing-first-firefox...

bryanlarsen 12y ago

Firefox OS has a huge advantage when running on low-memory phones. The most memory intensive thing typically run on a low-end phone is the web browser. (Or an app that wraps a browser, like Facebook). So the ability to run a web browser is the limiting factor. Every other OS has to have enough memory to run a GUI + a browser. Since Firefox OS uses the browser for its GUI, it theoretically can run smoother in 128MB or 256MB of RAM than any mainstream smartphone OS. IMO, Firefox should concentrate on the areas where it's intrinsic advantages lie.

pjmlp 12y ago
Ever heard of Series30, Series40 and Symbian mobiles? Native apps + browser, best of both worlds.
- jsudhams 12y ago
  i agree. I bought one of these (Intex) instead Nokia 109 and i regret the decision now. The phone is useless even for basic phone purpose. But hey i am now using twitter device. The battery come for about 4 hours with nay app running.
- bryanlarsen 12y ago
  I did have the word "theoretical" in my post. An "Opera OS" phone could probably work with 64MB...
zelos 12y ago
That doesn't seem to be the case at all according to the ArsTechnica review: 128MB cripples the phone to the point of near-useless. The original iPhone had 128MB RAM.
- bryanlarsen 12y ago
  The native apps on the original iPhone were incredible. The browser, not so much. Worlds better than the competition from 2007, but in 2014 you would certainly notice the extremely slow Javascript interpreter, the missing HTML5 capabilities, the missing phone API's, and the inability to hold more than one web page in memory simultaneously.

serf 12y ago

one of the nice things about their current position is that the hardware catches a lot of the blame for the overall experience. People expect next to nothing from these phones due to their price, and when they work better than was ever expected it looks favorable. it may be in the interest of firefox-os to compete with the low-end market for the time being, where expectations are low, while polishing the OS for release on a high-end phone when high-end features are thought out.