Cheapo Firefox OS mobes to debut in India – definitely not one for selfie-conscious users

The Mozilla Foundation's aim to create a Firefox OS for mobile devices was not to take a quixotic tilt at the top end of the smartphone market. Instead, it hoped to provide an alternative that would enable the delivery of low-cost, but still smart, devices to places where smartphones are still a significant purchase. That plan …

[h4rm0ny]

Good.

We need proper Libre phones out there. So long as there's viable Libre software that can do this, there's choice and we can avoid lock-in and stagnancy. Also, there's a lot to be said for a phone that can be modern whilst still being simple.

They should put a lot of focus on battery life. Firefox OS on a device with really long battery life would be outstanding for many parts of the Indian market.

Pint for the Mozilla crew - launching a new mobile OS is a lot of work!

[Caspy7]

Re: Good.

I'm uncertain exactly what you mean by Libre phone, but wanted you to know that these phone's hardware are not fully open. Despite Mozilla's desires, manufacturers/vendors make the hardware closed and also make the closed drivers that talk to them.

So down at the basic level there are some bits of code talking to the hardware that are not open.

I know that Mozilla does not like this situation and think they are probably looking to how it can change in the future, but at the moment they have little control. I think FxOS phones are at least the *most* open (viable) smartphones right now.

As to battery life, that has been on their radar since the inception of the project I believe. I've heard good things about the early models already released.

[sorry, what?]

Dual SIM

I know this comment is orthogonal to this article but why can't manufacturers help out the UK business user and provide dual SIM phones for our market? Whilst these are readily available in India you can only import such lower spec devices for UK use rather than find a mid to high end device supporting 2 SIMs and an SD card.

[captain veg]

Re: Dual SIM

Slightly closer to home, dual-SIM devices are readily available in the retail outlets of the (small) country-sized duty-free outlet that is Andorra. Why might that be? Maybe because they are selling them outright, no contract, no carrier subsidy, no need to shape the feature set to the needs of long-term revenue extraction.

Almost everything that is wrong about the mobile telephony market comes down to locked-in subsidised handsets. Just say no.

-A.

[h4rm0ny]

Re: Dual SIM

Nokia do a dual-sim Lumia: http://www.nokia.com/in-en/phones/phone/lumia630-dual-sim/. Not sure if they do any others in the range like that. WP8.1 does have nice support for dual SIM, though - http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/how-to/wp8/connectivity/use-a-dual-sim-phone. Doubles up the signal bars and runs dual messaging apps, etc. adjacent to each other. Not sure if that's helpful to you or not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Dual SIM

> I know this comment is orthogonal to this article but why can't manufacturers help out the UK business user and provide dual SIM phones for our market?

Just get them from BangGood or any of the other Chinese e-shops.

[Patrick R]

Re: Dual SIM

Most Wiko phones are dual SIM.

[Dan 55]

Re: Dual SIM

Samsung do a tonne of Galaxy phones which are dual SIM (all called Galaxy something Duos), it can't be that difficult to source them from a UK supplier.

[sorry, what?]

Re: Dual SIM

@dan 55, I considered one, but they are low spec and grey imports. I considered the only HTC dual SIM i could find as well. Same story.

[Dan 55]

Re: Dual SIM

Err... how about one of the CAT smartphones (B15 or B25) which are also dual SIM?

Or I bumped into this website...

http://www.godualsim.co.uk/category/android-dual-sim-mobile-phones/1/pricedesc

[Anonymous Coward]

Samsung Note 3's are available dual sim for asia market, and easy to get imports elsewhere.

But I still can't get my head around how any phone could be possibly called "high end" when it only has 1 sim.