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posted by chromas on Tuesday February 26 2019, @09:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the but-does-it-support-6G? dept.

How KaiOS claimed the third-place mobile crown

In December 2015, Mozilla announced it would be abandoning Firefox OS as a smartphone platform. Many assumed the company's withdrawal would kill any hope of a mobile operating system built around the open web, rather than a combination of native apps and tightly-controlled storefronts. In the last few years, plenty of so-called "alternative" smartphone platforms, including Ubuntu Touch and Windows 10 Mobile, have faded into obscurity, too. Jolla has struggled on with Sailfish OS, but it's never felt like a true challenger to the Android and iOS duopoly. Three years later and a surprising competitor has emerged: KaiOS. The relative newcomer, which makes feature phones smarter, is already running on more than 80 million devices worldwide. How did it grow so big, so quickly? With a little help from Firefox OS.

[...] The operating system that emerged is quite different to Firefox OS. The user interface, for instance, is built around phones with physical keys and non-touch displays. The application icons are smaller and you'll often see a contextual strip at the bottom of the screen with physical input options such as "Cancel" and "Okay." KaiOS optimized the platform for low-end hardware -- it only requires 256MB of RAM to run -- and, crucially, kept support for modern connectivity such as 3G, 4G, WiFi, GPS and NFC.

Feature phones are normally associated with emerging markets such as India and Brazil. KaiOS, however, started in the US with the Alcatel-branded Go Flip. Codeville and his team persuaded AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile to stock the handset because of their proven track record while working at TCL. Those deals then allowed the company to win a contract with Jio, a mobile network in India owned by a massive conglomerate called Reliance Industries. Together they built the JioPhone, a candybar-style device with a 2.4-inch display and 512MB of RAM. It was effectively given away with ultra-competitive 4G plans.

[...] Google Assistant was a particularly important addition. For many, voice is a faster way of typing than pecking a classic one-through-nine keypad with their thumbs. The Assistant talks back, too, which makes the platform viable for people with poor literacy skills.

Previously: $25 Firefox OS Smartphone Coming to India
Mozilla Adding Granular App Permissions to Firefox OS
Geeksphone Stops Support for FirefoxOS with No Warning
Mozilla to Cease Development of Firefox OS
The Story of Firefox OS
Google Invests $22 Million in the OS Powering Nokia Feature Phones


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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Subsentient on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:27AM (4 children)

    by Subsentient (1111) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:27AM (#807371) Homepage Journal

    Non-FOSS bastardization of Firefox OS with even more need for proprietary driver blobs. No thank you.

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    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:19AM (3 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 27 2019, @01:19AM (#807400) Journal

    That is too bad. And it looks like it will be the biggest "Linux phone" for the foreseeable future.

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Subsentient on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:16AM (2 children)

      by Subsentient (1111) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:16AM (#807464) Homepage Journal

      This is why the GPLv3 is important. I used to agree with the BSD license guys, but after seeing enough of this shit, I learned my lesson.

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @02:15PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @02:15PM (#807602)

        yep, BSD license is perfect ... in a perfect world!

        Reality show us that if the code is there, someone will take it and close it and not contribute back.

        In GPL, some people they still do that, until they are found, but most of then start to rethink and start to contribute back, getting a more friendly attitude with the community.

        Sadly google and several other companies are set to kill GPL, as it is unfriendly to their control plans

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:21PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:21PM (#807757)

          exactly. i understand that some people really just like the bsd b/c they don't want to dictate anything to anyone, but most people use it b/c they are whores who want to suck up to leaching corps.