New phone system aims to set SA afire

THE smartphone world is divided almost on religious lines between those who use handsets running Google’s Android operating system and those using Apple’s iOS. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile provides an alternative for people who like their technology evangelism to have a hook in the past, and BlackBerry represents the fading glory of old-time religion.

All of these, on some level, represent a commercial imperative, with even the free Android geared towards growing traffic for Google.

Now, finally, there is an alternative for agnostics who want their operating system free of business encumbrance. The Firefox OS, made by Mozilla, the same nonprofit organisation that developed the Firefox browser, has come out of the prototype monastery and emerged as a fully-fledged operating system on real phones.

Firefox OS phones have already been launched in South America and India by manufacturers such as LG, ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel. The latter will be the first out of the blocks in South Africa, as it launches two low-cost Firefox phones, the Fire C and Fire E, in the next few months.

Firefox was a major new presence at last week’s AfricaCom telecommunications expo in Cape Town, with the Fire phones on display at the Alcatel stand and Mozilla executives taking part in panel discussions and informal events. Following the expo, its proselytes have been fanning out across the country to spread the word. And the word is “ecosystem”.

“We’re really all about enabling alternate ecosystems,” said Rick Fant, a Mozilla vice president. “At the moment there’s a duopoly of ecosystems. We want to provide a mechanism where the web itself can participate as an ecosystem and give users choice.”

But do they really need more choice?

“If they are kept in the existing walled gardens, we believe innovation over time will suffer and users will have less choice. We want to open up the environment and let the web thrive on mobile in the same way it has on other platforms.”

The Firefox operating system is geared towards optimising the web browsing experience. However, users already have the choice of using a Firefox browser on other operating systems. The difference, said Fant, was that many smartphone experiences, such as WhatsApp, were “app only”. And when running the Firefox browser on Android, it is subject to Android’s own business and content rules.

He acknowledged that the fundamental browsing experience remained the same. But, by integrating the browser more tightly with the operating system, it allows for greater localisation of content.

A member of Fant’s team with the delightful title of “Fire-

We also need to get locally relevant, culturally relevant content

starter”, Desigan Chinniah, said he had met with more than 40 local “content” providers, ranging from news and sport sites to banks and entertainment organisations.

“Wherever you go in the world, there are standard apps that are needed, like Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia,” he said. “But we also need to get locally relevant, culturally relevant content. When a user in Mexico or Poland or South Africa switches on a phone for the first time, it mustn’t feel like an American device.”

In the next few months, it is likely that local operators such as MTN and Vodacom, as well as regional manufacturers like TECNO in Nigeria, will announce Firefox options.

The operating system itself may not be a major drawcard, but the promise of low-cost smartphones is bound to attract many new believers.

Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee and on YouTube