Spreadtrum Communications and Mozilla have joined hands to deliver $25 smartphones making the announcment at Mobile world congress today in Barcelona.
Appeal is for feature phone market
While not as powerful as more expensive models, the device will run apps and make use of mobile internet.It would appeal to the sorts of people who currently buy cheap “feature” phones, analysts said.
Feature phones
Feature phones are highly popular in Africa and other emerging markets as a halfway point between “dumb” phones – just voice calls and other basic functions – and fully-fledged smartphones. Mozilla hopes that it will capture an early lead in a market that is now being targeted by mobile device manufacturers who see the developing world as the remaining area for massive growth.
Integration of Firefox OS
Spreadtrum and Mozilla have completed the integration of Firefox OS with Spreadtrum’s SC6821 and SC7710 WCDMA smartphone chipsets, and expect to complete a turnkey reference design for the SC7715, Spreadtrum’s single-core WCDMA smartphone chipset with integrated connectivity, next month. Spreadtrum and Mozilla’s collaboration will extend across Spreadtrum’s full chipset portfolio.