Mozilla, Foxconn Confirm Firefox OS Partnership 65
hypnosec writes "Mozilla has confirmed reports that indicated a probable collaboration with Foxconn for development of Firefox OS based devices. Announcing the 'wide ranging partnership' with Foxconn, Mozilla's SVP of Mobile Devices noted in a blog post that collaboration between the two companies 'demonstrates the full potential of Firefox OS,' and it would not only enable the smartphone 'but also a wide range of mobile devices.'"
Re:Wow that was surprising. (Score:4, Informative)
Foxconn's customer list includes HP, Dell, Acer... pretty much every major computer company in the world. But don't let facts get in the way of your blind consumerism!
Smartphone surcharge (Score:4, Informative)
There are over 6 billion phone users in the world and only 1 billion smartphone users.
The 5 billion other phone users include dumbphone users and land line users.
To get people to upgrade from dumbphones to smartphones, Mozilla is going to have to get past the fact that carrying a dumbphone and a small Wi-Fi-only tablet costs substantially less per month than carrying a smartphone. At least in my country, CDMA2000 carriers won't activate a smartphone without a data plan, and the larger of the two GSM carriers is known for cramming a data plan [clickboom.me] onto any voice-only SIM put into a device with a smartphone IMEI.
To get householders to upgrade from land lines to smartphones, you're going to have to get the price of a "family plan" down near the price of one land line phone shared by the whole household. In my country, magicJack provides home VoIP service for less than $3 per month to households that have always-on Internet through any provider.