5 ms·

First Firefox OS Smartphones in Africa

91 points by igravious 12y ago

Raed667 12y ago
Unless they really work on the price (less than 70$) for decent phones, I can't see ffOS doing anything major in Africa
- _broody 12y ago
  As a point of comparison, you can get a Lumia 520 for less. It's a really decent smartphone too from a good brand. It will be interesting to see if Mozilla can yield the combination of quality/value to succeed.
  - SunboX 12y ago
    Are you sure that you can get the 520 for the same price in Senegal as you get it in US or Europe?
    - SunboX 12y ago
      Short googling - Lumia 520 costs R1,1549.00 and 1549 South African rands = 129.886748 U.S. dollars
fiatjaf 12y ago
In a matter of five years all african economies will surpass US due to the lack of WhatsApp on Firefox OS phones.
- SunboX 12y ago
  If you ask me, in five years another messaging service will be up-to-date. But you may be right, the internet at all is getting multi cultural. That will be really interesting times.
- SunboX 12y ago
  Btw. there's no "lack of WhatsApp on Firefox OS phones". I'm using OpenWapp on Firefox OS day by day. And it's working. Another WhatsApp client is ConnectA2 (which I didn't use by now)
- maelito 12y ago
  haha
- mikehaggard 11y ago
  Unless of course they invent their own WhatsApp, as many other regions have done. I mean, WeChat anyone? Chinese people refuse to use anything but that.
vfclists 12y ago
The title of this post is confusing and misleading, as Firefox OS phones were launched earlier in South Africa. The post is obviously about the first phones launched by Orange as those in South Africa were launched by MTN. You could be forgiven for believing that Mozilla doesn't consider South Africa to be part of Africa.
- igravious 12y ago
  Thanks for pointing that out. In fairness to Mozilla they do have the snippet "Earlier this spring, Firefox OS phones launched in South Africa[1]" tagged onto the end of their blog post. I agree, the title of the post is a bit misleading and I have done further damage. Should definitely read ---> "Orange Launches [Their] First Firefox OS Smartphones in Africa" :) [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/04/02/firefox-os-arrives-in-south-africa/ https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/04/02/firefox-os-arrives-...
ndesaulniers 12y ago
I maintain a map of official launch countries for Firefox OS, with launch dates. [0][1] [0] http://nickdesaulniers.github.io/where-is-firefox-os/ http://nickdesaulniers.github.io/where-is-firefox-os/ [1] https://github.com/nickdesaulniers/where-is-firefox-os https://github.com/nickdesaulniers/where-is-firefox-os
- hiphopyo 12y ago
  Could you possibly add an ETA to the countries where it's not at?
  - ndesaulniers 12y ago
    heh, yeah, if I _had_ that information. When?! When?! One day, is that not enough for you?! One day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.
- digi_owl 12y ago
  I find it odd that it has yet to reach the Nordics, given that one of their big partners are Telenor (the former national monopoly in Norway).
  - josteink 12y ago
    I was also surprised about that, and I'm from the Norway, Telenor's home-country of all places. But looking at Firefox OS, the truth is that it aims to enter mobile from the deep bottom of the market, especially in emerging markets where smartphones has yet to establish a foothold across society. From there it aims to work its way up, rather than trying to "win" the lucarative ends of the market from either Android or iOS. And in the Nordics, to be honest, we're just buying the highest end devices, and barely anything else. Firefox OS would (yet) not be able to compete in here. Maybe later, if it improves and matures, but only time can tell. But hey. This strategy once worked for Google. I kinda doubt it, but there's no reason Mozilla can't make it work for them too. After all, supporting Firefox OS, mostly consists of writing a proper web-app, and we're all making those anyway. And as a developer, god knows, I'd love to not to ever have relate to the Android API again if I could just deal with HTML and JS.
netcan 12y ago
Question: Is a mid range tablet not the easiest or more obvious testing ground for an emerging mobile OS? Even a small tablet/music player?
- andor 12y ago
  Maybe it's easier technically, but nobody really needs tablets. Firefox OS targets the entry-level market, most people in this market will buy just one device.
  - woah 12y ago
    Tablets seem to sell pretty well
    - _broody 12y ago
      It's what I've observed as well. Plenty of low-income people get cheap chinese tablets, usually generic-brand entry-level models. No idea about the price but I don't think they're a hair above $100, possibly less than half that.
gexla 12y ago
They have been available in the Philippines for a while now. As others have mentioned, they are at the low end here. Low end smart phones are almost not even smart phones. You get Android and not much else because you don't get the resources to run much. Storage is a major constraint, but so is RAM. Without being able to install much for apps, that largely constrains you to the browser. I don't know much about FirefoxOS, but I imagine that's largely what drives the "application" of the phone. I don't have much desire to own a FirefoxOS phone. Many of the people here who are limited to entry level phones don't have the money for data or an internet connection at home. Phones here are largely just shiny toys which shows off what you can afford. A FirefoxOS is better than a feature phone in that regard, but you are still treating it like a feature phone.
ape4 12y ago
Like the opposite of internet.org

91 points by igravious 12y ago

Raed667 12y ago

Unless they really work on the price (less than 70$) for decent phones, I can't see ffOS doing anything major in Africa

_broody 12y ago
As a point of comparison, you can get a Lumia 520 for less. It's a really decent smartphone too from a good brand. It will be interesting to see if Mozilla can yield the combination of quality/value to succeed.
- SunboX 12y ago
  Are you sure that you can get the 520 for the same price in Senegal as you get it in US or Europe?
  - SunboX 12y ago
    Short googling - Lumia 520 costs R1,1549.00 and 1549 South African rands = 129.886748 U.S. dollars

fiatjaf 12y ago

In a matter of five years all african economies will surpass US due to the lack of WhatsApp on Firefox OS phones.

SunboX 12y ago
If you ask me, in five years another messaging service will be up-to-date. But you may be right, the internet at all is getting multi cultural. That will be really interesting times.
SunboX 12y ago
Btw. there's no "lack of WhatsApp on Firefox OS phones". I'm using OpenWapp on Firefox OS day by day. And it's working. Another WhatsApp client is ConnectA2 (which I didn't use by now)
maelito 12y ago
haha
mikehaggard 11y ago
Unless of course they invent their own WhatsApp, as many other regions have done. I mean, WeChat anyone? Chinese people refuse to use anything but that.

vfclists 12y ago

The title of this post is confusing and misleading, as Firefox OS phones were launched earlier in South Africa. The post is obviously about the first phones launched by Orange as those in South Africa were launched by MTN. You could be forgiven for believing that Mozilla doesn't consider South Africa to be part of Africa.

igravious 12y ago
Thanks for pointing that out. In fairness to Mozilla they do have the snippet "Earlier this spring, Firefox OS phones launched in South Africa[1]" tagged onto the end of their blog post. I agree, the title of the post is a bit misleading and I have done further damage. Should definitely read ---> "Orange Launches [Their] First Firefox OS Smartphones in Africa" :) [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/04/02/firefox-os-arrives-in-south-africa/ https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/04/02/firefox-os-arrives-...

ndesaulniers 12y ago

I maintain a map of official launch countries for Firefox OS, with launch dates. [0][1] [0] http://nickdesaulniers.github.io/where-is-firefox-os/ http://nickdesaulniers.github.io/where-is-firefox-os/ [1] https://github.com/nickdesaulniers/where-is-firefox-os https://github.com/nickdesaulniers/where-is-firefox-os

hiphopyo 12y ago
Could you possibly add an ETA to the countries where it's not at?
- ndesaulniers 12y ago
  heh, yeah, if I _had_ that information. When?! When?! One day, is that not enough for you?! One day he went dumb, one day I went blind, one day we'll go deaf, one day we were born, one day we shall die, the same day, the same second, is that not enough for you? They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more.
digi_owl 12y ago
I find it odd that it has yet to reach the Nordics, given that one of their big partners are Telenor (the former national monopoly in Norway).
- josteink 12y ago
  I was also surprised about that, and I'm from the Norway, Telenor's home-country of all places. But looking at Firefox OS, the truth is that it aims to enter mobile from the deep bottom of the market, especially in emerging markets where smartphones has yet to establish a foothold across society. From there it aims to work its way up, rather than trying to "win" the lucarative ends of the market from either Android or iOS. And in the Nordics, to be honest, we're just buying the highest end devices, and barely anything else. Firefox OS would (yet) not be able to compete in here. Maybe later, if it improves and matures, but only time can tell. But hey. This strategy once worked for Google. I kinda doubt it, but there's no reason Mozilla can't make it work for them too. After all, supporting Firefox OS, mostly consists of writing a proper web-app, and we're all making those anyway. And as a developer, god knows, I'd love to not to ever have relate to the Android API again if I could just deal with HTML and JS.

netcan 12y ago

Question: Is a mid range tablet not the easiest or more obvious testing ground for an emerging mobile OS? Even a small tablet/music player?

andor 12y ago
Maybe it's easier technically, but nobody really needs tablets. Firefox OS targets the entry-level market, most people in this market will buy just one device.
- woah 12y ago
  Tablets seem to sell pretty well
  - _broody 12y ago
    It's what I've observed as well. Plenty of low-income people get cheap chinese tablets, usually generic-brand entry-level models. No idea about the price but I don't think they're a hair above $100, possibly less than half that.

gexla 12y ago

They have been available in the Philippines for a while now. As others have mentioned, they are at the low end here. Low end smart phones are almost not even smart phones. You get Android and not much else because you don't get the resources to run much. Storage is a major constraint, but so is RAM. Without being able to install much for apps, that largely constrains you to the browser. I don't know much about FirefoxOS, but I imagine that's largely what drives the "application" of the phone. I don't have much desire to own a FirefoxOS phone. Many of the people here who are limited to entry level phones don't have the money for data or an internet connection at home. Phones here are largely just shiny toys which shows off what you can afford. A FirefoxOS is better than a feature phone in that regard, but you are still treating it like a feature phone.

ape4 12y ago

Like the opposite of internet.org