Telefonica Announces Launches of First Firefox OS Devices in Latin America

ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fire and ZTE Open Firefox OS smartphones go on sale through Movistar in Colombia and Venezuela Today

Today, Telefonica announced that the ALCATEL ONE TOUCH Fire and ZTE Open devices will go on sale in Colombia and Venezuela. Both devices are now available through Movistar stores and sales channels. Telefonica also announced that Firefox OS devices will launch in Brazil in Q4.

Firefox OS marks a significant milestone for the Web, enabling for the first time devices to be manufactured to totally open Web standards. These launches come just one month after the launch of the first Firefox OS smartphones in Spain, with Poland shortly after.

“Firefox OS powers the first smartphones built entirely on Web technologies and will stimulate an inspiring new wave of innovation for the Web,” says Jay Sullivan, Mozilla Chief Operating Officer. “We are proud to work with partners like Telefonica which see the potential to deliver an experience for first time smartphone users which will delight them and really put the power of the Web in everyone’s hands.”

Commenting on the launches, Yotam Ben-Ami, Director of Open Web Devices at Telefónica Digital said, “There is strong momentum building behind Firefox OS as we bring more devices to more of our markets. But this is just the beginning as the platform, content ecosystem and range of devices continues to expand. There is an inherent imbalance in the smartphone market at the moment and we believe that Firefox OS represents the best opportunity to restore balance and provide a more open smartphone experience to customers.”

Firefox for Android Makes Mobile Browsing Faster & Easier

Firefox for Android makes it easy to get to your favorite sites with a personalized page that we call the Awesome Screen. Firefox for Android includes a new and improved  Awesome Screen to help get you to where you want to go on the Web quickly.

The Awesome Screen now completes your URL destination as-you-type to get you to your favorite sites faster. Firefox for Android includes Switch to Tab that lets you easily find and switch to any open tab from your Awesome Screen without opening duplicate tabs. The title bar in Firefox for Android hides while not in use to make your entire screen available for your content. Simply pull down the title bar from the top of the screen when you are ready to use it again.
Have a favorite search provider? Firefox for Android lets you change your default search provider from the Firefox add-ons manager. It is really easy to make this change in a few clicks. Simply, visit the Add-ons manager, and long-tap on an installed search engine. This brings up a dialog where you can either “Disable” the search engine, or “Set as Default.”
Firefox for Android includes an updated RSS feed reader to create a simple way to subscribe to an RSS feed. If you go to any page with a discoverable RSS feed and long-tap on the URL bar, you will be given the option to “Subscribe to Page.”
Mozilla works with a global volunteer community to create Firefox and almost every non-English version of Firefox is localized by community volunteers. Firefox for Android adds support for Turkish and Hungarian locales bringing an amazing Web experience to even more people around the globe.

Firefox OS-powered ZTE Open sells out on Ebay

• One of the first Firefox OS phones, the ZTE Open, took the unusual route of going up on sale on еБay. It was available in the US for $80 and in the UK for £60. Was because supplies have just run out.
• Mozilla has partnered with Telefonica and the Open is available through the carrier in several countries (Spain, Venezuela and Colombia), the eBay phones were sold directly to customers.
• eBay UK is reporting 990 Open phones sold and eBay US says 985. There won't be any more units available until the next production run, but it's not clear when that will happen.
• Note that the ZTE Open is still available through Telefonica-owned Movistar in Spain (for €70 including VAT) if you really wanted to buy one but missed the eBay sale.
• There are other Firefox OS-powered phones too, Geeksphone Peak+ and the Alcatel One Touch Fire