COSTA RICA TECH NEWS — Movistar is the first to bring the Firefox OS operating system to Costa Rica, with the Fire C Alcatel One Touch that will retail for ¢38.900 colones (US$72).
Although Claro had said it would bring us the operating system in 2013, neither it or the state telecom, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), have such devices.
The phone has a 5 inch screen, 3 megapixel camera, GPS and basic applications installed. The device uses the web platform for the applications, which are not downloaded or stored directly on the phone, but in the cloud. However, it has 1Gb available for downloading other applications.
Firefox OS was developed by Mozilla and Telefonica, the Spanish mobile company and owner of the Movistar brand. In 2004, Mozilla revolutionized the Internet world with its Firefox browser. Last year the non-profit organization launched the mobile operating system.
For those who haven’t been following, Firefox OS is a smartphone operating system based entirely on open web standards that Mozilla is positioning as a more open alternative for powering low-cost and mid-range devices in high-growth emerging markets. There’s little information available on the progress of Firefox OS’ European debut, but Latin America is arguably the more important market in terms of proving whether or not Mozilla has any hope of gaining a foothold among the ruling giants of mobile.
But what makes Firefox OS special then? Firefox OS is entirely based on open web technologies like HTML 5 or JavaScript.
Firefox OS is Mozilla’s attempt to inject some open competition into the mobile space, which is pretty much a two-horse race at this point, with feature phones slowly losing more and more ground to smartphones based on Android and iOS.
Since all apps are also all based on well-known and widely-distributed technologies, such as HTML 5, CSS or JavaScript, it is easy for programmers to create content. However, apps can be installed locally or be executed directly online in the browser. Thus, apps can simply be installed from the market place, or the search box that shows all available online apps in Firefox OS. Apps can also sometimes just be mobile websites so that the home screen turns into a nicely rehashed bookmark list. The boundaries between apps and mobile Internet merge imperceptibly.
The Firefox OS is also intuitive in use: Android users will only need a short familiarization period.
Firefox OS attempts to inject some open competition into the mobile space, which is pretty much a two-horse race at this point, Android and iOS.
Source: Elfinancierocr.com; Movistar.cr; Techcrunch.com
