Android’s Competition: This is the first “Firefox Phone”
Another competitor has just stepped into the arena, folks. Mozilla has long been working on its mobile web-based operating system, and it’s because of the nature of Mozilla as a whole — an open-source minded company with a software culture not unlike Google’s — that our eyes are peeled. Welp, the folks have finally officially revealed the first device the operating system will run on.
It’s a very orange developer device that won’t be targeted toward consumers just yet. Spec junkies will feel a bit underwhelmed as it’s sporting a modest 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM, a 3 megapixel camera, 4GB of internal storage and more.
Of course, specs alone only tell half the story. The first Windows Phone devices didn’t launch with the most vaunted set of specs in the world but the operating system was optimized to be as smooth as butter. Most application developers won’t mind these archaic specs, but we imagine those looking to develop games for it will be looking for something a bit more (though I have a feeling games isn’t a huge focus of Mozilla’s right now).
Personally, I’m just left wondering who’s going to get this device for the sole purpose of trying to shoehorn Android onto it. Mozilla hasn’t really convinced many folks that its operating system will be the one that can knock Android off its pedestal. Canonical is trying in a very convincing fashion early on with Ubuntu, and despite a solid first showing there are still early doubts about its ability to compete.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for yet another mobile operating system, of course — developing markets are sure to welcome choice and variety. We could see a few OEMs in the likes of China and South America adopt these new operating systems with open arms, but for now Android is still going to dominate the hearts of the big name players such as Samsung, Motorola, Sony, HTC and more.
[via Geeksphone]