A new smartphone using Firefox operating system is now available on eBay for American and European customers with a low price tag of only $99. ZTE is now selling its Firefox OX smartphone and while the price is low enough to initially get some traction, many industry experts are questioning whether it will be worth purchasing, considering upgrading slightly will get a much better phone.
The new phone is dubbed Open C and was launched at the Mobile World Congress. It is a newer updated model from the ZTE Open, the first Firefox OS phone, but it hasn't made a real impact in the market, despite Firefox promoting the new phone and its open source operating system.
It comes contract free and is unlocked, meaning users can purchase the phone in any of the current markets available through eBay and take the phone to any country and use it on any network that employs SIM cards, leaving Japan out of the running for the phone at the current moment - Japan uses a system similar to Verizon and does not have SIM cards.
The ZTE Open C is available on the company's eBay store.
Among the European distributions, countries included are Sweden, Norway, Ukraine, Denmark, Finland, Czech Republic, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Malta, Luxembourg, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Netherlands, Monaco, and Vatican City State, but Italy was left out.
ZTE is promoting the product on its eBay listing as equal to being purchased at any retail store. Buy the phone and take it to any mobile provider and the phone will function and work as any smartphone.
"Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag," reads the eBay listing.
But the phone lacks much umph and many industry experts say the phone, while being affordable, does not deliver any noticeable innovations that mark it differently from others on the market. But at this price, it might just be worth it for low-income households.
For now, Firefox is hoping that by going cheap it will show its resolve in delivering high quality products at a lower cost in order to reach a large number of potential users.
