Twitter top pick on Firefox app store.
The Firefox mobile operating system is clearly a work in progress, but that said, it works well enough already. I’ve been using a ZTE Open Firefox phone for three months, and can do most of the things I need to do and, as time goes on and software is released, more of the things I’d like to do.
The OS performs better than Bada, which I used for about a year on a Samsung handset. There’s more software available and it’s a snappier, less frustrating experience. On the other hand, it’s not as smooth or well stocked with apps as my two-year old LG Android phone. All three are in the same, low end price range.
The phone itself is well worth the $80 I paid for it. In its current form, it’s effectively a software developers’ kit rather than a consumer product, but even so it performs well. It also sold well – the first thousand phones were gone in hours. ZTE has been following up with purchasers, as it irons out bugs and extends the platform’s capabilities.
The Open lacks LTE connectivity, as did the unlocked Android phones that ZTE previewed at the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular in San Francisco last month. Which is a problem for developers, since the Firefox OS is built on HTML5, which in turn depends on fast connections between tiny apps and big servers.
On the consumer side, a ZTE product manager said that he didn’t think users would notice the lack of LTE on unlocked phones. Or maybe he’s just hoping they won’t. His argument was that since LTE networks are getting slammed by heavy traffic from high end phones, value conscious buyers will be happier with what he considered to be less crowded 3G bands. By that logic, though, they should be overjoyed using 2G Edge networks. Good luck with that.