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Gigaom reports:
Mozilla continues to push its web-based Firefox OS phone with the first model in India available this week. Intex Technologies is selling the handset, dubbed the Cloud FX, for 1,999 rupees ($33.03 US) through Snapdeal.com.
The Cloud FX is powered by a 1 GHz chip and comes with a meager 128 MB of memory and 256 MB of internal storage, although the latter can be expanded up to 4 GB. The phone supports a dual-SIM configuration and has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios. Don't expect speedy mobile broadband though: This handset uses 2G networks to connect to the web. Buyers will also be limited by the display, which is a 3.5-inch screen with 320 x 480 resolution. Images are captured with a 2 megapixel camera.
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Firefox OS Phone Available In India For $33
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(Score: 2) by evilviper on Sunday August 31 2014, @08:17AM
Okay, well here it is for $29 shipped:
http://www.amazon.com/Kyocera-Event-Prepaid-Android-Virgin/dp/B00B9K6ESC/ [amazon.com]
Now, being an honest and fair-minded person, are you going to condemn the FirefoxOS phone for being 12% more expensive in an area where people can't afford it, even with its lower and poorer specs?
If you find any evidence of subsidy, be sure to let me know, otherwise we'll just assume there's none. And unlocking a phone so you can switch to another carrier is now blanket legal in the US. That's a very good reason not to subsidize phones... Other reasons include their extensive utility when used without cellular data plans, so companies may be motivated to buy hundreds of these as everything from wifi video surveillance cameras to handy barcode readers for inventory purposes. You have to plan to lose your subsidy on a LOT of those phones, no matter how well they might be "locked" to Sprint's network.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 02 2014, @10:30PM
Hey, I didn't condemn the Kyocera for being more expensive, so I won't condemn the FirefoxOS one for being more expensive. But yes, being fair minded and honest I will concede that if the Kyocera (or something similar to the one you linked) is available in India for around the same price or less than the the FirefoxOS phone it would be a better buy than the FirefoxOS phone. Your link with a cheaper price for the Kyocera doesn't prove there will be something equivalent in India for the same price, but at least makes it seem likely.
As to subsidies, phone companies generally don't disclose that information, but you can infer their existence by the price difference between the carrier version and the unlocked version. Unless it is available unlocked for that price I'll assume it is subsidised. So long as not too many people unlock their phones (are carriers allowed to charge a fee for this? yes, I'm aware it is often possible to obtain lock codes cheaply elsewhere, but not everyone will be) it can still be viable to offer some subsidy. I'm pretty sure it is not illegal in the UK, yet pay-as-you-go phones still seem to be cheaper when bought locked to a carrier, as an example a few months ago I bought a Moto E, it was generally available for £89, but through various carriers you could get it locked for £79 (I got a further £10 off mine through a special promotion, so paid £69, and promptly unlocked it through a code I bought on ebay for £2), the price difference indicates that is some subsidy otherwise why lock it? Carriers can make it difficult to buy these in bulk, but so long as on average the subsidy is covered by usage, it is still worth doing. And would those Kyoceras really make good Wifi cameras or barcode readers, I should think whatever camera they have on them is pretty dire and would do a poor job at either of those possible non-phone uses.