James Delahunty
1 Jul 2013 8:14
Spain's Telefonica carrier will be the first to offer a smartphone running Firefox OS to consumers when it begins selling the ZTE Open on Tuesday, July 2.
Firefox OS is a smartphone operating system built by Mozilla that relies heavily on existing web technologies, such as HTML 5 to deliver apps and functionality to its users. It is described as a browser-based, open source operating system.
The ZTE Open is not a very powerful smartphone - Qualcomm MSM7225A Snapdragon, 1.0GHz Cortex 5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB RAM with 5.3-inch, 320x480 display - but it is not intended to rival smartphones coveted by the spec-anxious users.
Instead the ZTE Open is intended to provide a low-cost proof of concept of Firefox OS. Telefonica will offer the ZTE Open for €69, including €30 of balance for prepaid customers and a 4GB microSD card. For customers on contract, the ZTE Open costs €2.38 per month ex IVA for 24 months.