The newest entry to the mobile industry is the ever popular Mozilla with the release of its Firefox OS. Last week, the company released hardware not intended for consumers, but for developers. Keon, the smartphone from Geeksphone, sold out immediately. Unlike iOS and Android, Firefox OS is aimed at the emerging markets. Mozilla has put in its hopes in affordable hardware and believes that consumer handsets will make a mark as affordable smartphones and at the same time be considered as capable as any modern smartphone, not only from consumers’ view but also for developers. Keon is the first step towards this goal.
Keon is not a commercial phone as such; it’s a developer’s practical tool for debugging purposes. It does not have amazing specifications like the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S IV (and is in fact priced at only $119.00), but just runs the Firefox OS, thereby enabling the developers to check for consistency of the apps they develop. Such a practical and real time environment will yield more accurate results than a simulator that may give the correct output only 90% of the time.
With the commercial device slated for release later this year, Keon will make sure the OS has enough fully functioning apps at the time of its launch, unlike other operating systems that wait for developers to code for them months after they roll out in the market. Mozilla’s strategy has good chances of succeeding as people will not have to doubtfully wait for their favourite apps after buying the phone. Firefox OS relies upon Javascript and HTML, which provides a standard framework for app development.
Firefox OS has a large number of practical barriers to break, but Mozilla has made a smart move with the introduction of the Keon. The Keon has managed to building excitement for the platform among developers. Although Firefox OS apps will not have native code access to the device, the speed and ease-of-use of Firefox OS is appealing. The Keon features a 1 GHz Snapdragon S1 processor along with 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. Powering things along is a 1580 mAh battery along with 2G and 3G connectivity. The display is a 3.5 inch HVGA LCD display. The main camera is a lowly 3 MP unit.
