Mozilla develops £15 smartphone

Mozilla, the free software community from the US behind the popular web browser Firefox and Firefox OS, developed and market a smartphone targeted specifically at emerging markets.

Taking on Samsung, Apple and Blackberry (amongst others) in the competitive smartphone arena is a challenge for any manufacturer, but Mozilla are prototyping a smartphone with a difference - a £15 price tag.

In order to keep costs low but functionality as high as possible, Mozilla signed a development and manufacturing deal with Chinese chip maker Spreadtrum in order to make use of the company’s newly released SC8621 silicone chip. The resulting smartphone features a 3.5 inch, 320x480 pixels touchscreen, integrated wifi, bluetooth and a functioning camera. All for the price of a burger and chips at Whitecross Market.

Targeting emerging markets, the low cost of the smartphone is reflected in the future release’s lack of 4G connectivity, comparatively low screen resolution and aging CPU design, although in areas where aspiration levels for smartphones outweighs disposable income, the Mozilla device - with its fully integrated Cortex A5-based chipset - is sure to be received well in entry-level smartphone markets.

By Subhashish Panigrahi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons