Hello Firefox

The smartphone world is divided into two camps – or three if you take a closer look. Google, Apple, and Microsoft drive events with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone (or Windows 10 in the near future). Beyond these mega-corp products, three open source systems for smartphones and tablets are waiting in the wings: Ubuntu Phone [1] by Canonical, Sailfish OS [2] by Jolla, and Mozilla Firefox OS [3]. Although the first two are still fairly rare, Firefox OS has long since become part of the mainstream in the emerging economies of Brazil, Costa Rica, and Peru. You will also find phones with Firefox OS in the portfolio of major providers, such as Telefónica and Verizon [4].

For a first step into the world of Firefox OS, I will be using a ZTE Open C [5]. With its 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 4-inch display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels, and 512MB of RAM, this is an entry-level smartphone (for details, see Table 1). For the lean Firefox OS, this kind of computing performance is more than enough; a Raspberry Pi with just one quarter of the Open C's computing performance can magic a whole, usable, desktop onto the screen – in other words, you don't need much performance to display content.

The ZTE Open C phone is available to buy on eBay and is priced at $69.99 [6]. First impressions are positive across the board; the phone nestles nicely in your palm and does not look inferior despite its low price. The initial setup is intuitive and quickly done. However, this is not a Firefox OS or ZTE Open C product review; instead, I will embark upon some entry-level app development on Firefox OS.

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