15000 Intex Cloud FX Firefox OS phones get sold in 3 days

The Intex Cloud FX sells at a dirt cheap price of Rs 1999, something which has obviously worked in its favor seeing as 15000 units of the phone were sold by Snapdeal within the first three days of its launch in India. This is undeniably a good thing if you’re Mozilla and want to spread the word about your Firefox OS far and wide.



The HTML5-based mobile OS pairs with a Spreadtrum processor and a reference design which lets manufacturers build ultra low-cost devices for the masses. India’s the fastest growing handset market in the world, but many are yet to migrate from basic handsets to smartphones. The Intex Cloud FX comes at the right time, never mind that its components are so 2007.

Mozilla had to partner with Indian brands which have a reputation for offering inexpensive products in order to be a success in the country and hence announced Spice as well as Intex as its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners. The price point and marketing strategy for the Cloud FX clearly worked for it considering that 15000 units flew off shelves.

Most of the buyers were apparently from South India, says The Economic Times who has referred to PTI for this story. Almost 70% of the demand came from tier II and III markets, with the maximum purchases having been made by people in the 18 to 25 years age bracket. Sales of the Firefox phone appears to have buoyed up the mood at Intex.

The company thinks it will be able to sell a total of 1 lakh Cloud FX devices by the end of September and even expects to ship out 5 lakhs of the same before we roll in to 2015. IDC notes that the Indian smartphone segment grew by a massive 84% year-on-year in Q2 2014. Products in this category priced below Rs 12000 claimed 81% of the market share in the said period.

Intex Cloud FX key specs:

- Mozilla Firefox OS platform
- 1GHz Spreadtrum SC6821 processor
- 3.5-inch 320 x 480p touchscreen
- 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
- 4GB memory expandability
- Dual SIM, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- 2MP main camera
- 1250mAh battery, 4 hours of talk time
- 115.9 x 62 x 11.8 millimeters
- 104 grams

You can buy the Intex Cloud FX from Snapdeal by hitting this link.

8 things you must know before buying Intex or Spice Firefox smartphones

With the launch of two low cost Firefox smartphones- Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 in India, smartphone buyers have got a lot queries. From a layman perspective, here’s what you get and what you don’t get in these two Firefox smartphones. Also, to clear the doubts of confused masses, Firefox has nothing to do with Android. Both are completely different operating systems.

The Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 are 2G enabled smartphones and doesn’t support 3G. On the connectivity front, both the devices features WiFi, Bluetooth and USB tethering. Also, both the handsets are very basic in nature with the only mission to connect users to the Internet and social networking platforms. So, multimedia experience with both the handsets are pretty basic.

Here’s what you need to know:

1) You don’t need an email ID to operate Firefox OS. In Android, you need to have a Gmail account to access most features of the operating system along with Google Play. In Firefox, users are not required to enter an email ID to access the operating system. This makes sense given the fact that Firefox wants to connect the masses to Internet without any form of barrier.

2) Using Firefox smartphones are relatively easy when compared to Android. First time smartphone users will not encounter much difficulties in operating the OS. The call, messaging, contacts and Firefox browser icons are always present in plain sight and the experience is more like using the home screen of Android and you just have to swipe left or right to access apps.

 

On the home screen, there’s a bar showing “I’m thinking of…” through which users are directed to Google search. Accessing Internet on the Firefox OS is very simple and user-friendly.

 

3) Firefox OS supports all major social networking apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Quora, Pinterest.

 

4) Very low internal memory. You will need a microSD card to start your multimedia experience with the device. So, if you don’t have one, add the price of a microSD card to the cost. Both handsets support up to 4 GB of external memory.

5) WhatsApp is not available directly. Yes, you got that right. The official WhatsApp instant messaging application is currently not there in Firefox Marketplace . “Users can connect to WhatsApp via third party app called ConnectA2,” said James Ho, senior director, Firefox Mobile Devices Group.

  

We tried to connect to WhatsApp on the Intex Cloud FX smartphone using the ConnectA2 third party app and we failed. ConnectA2 asked for nick name, country and mobile number to register. Then it asked to enter a six-digit code which the app sent via SMS. The SMS never arrived! We also tried the voice call feature to get the code but failed again.

The ConnectA2 app should have worked but we have no clue as to why it failed us on the Intex Cloud FX.

6) Popular games and apps missing. There’s no Angry Birds or Temple Run or Candy Crush or other other popular games. However, you can play Flappy Birds. The Firefox Marketplace is in a pretty nascent stage but soon you can expect more apps on the platform as apps can be easily ported.

 

7) Consumes less mobile data. Firefox OS uses web compression techniques which reduces mobile data consumption. Also, as both the devices are 2G only, the data consumption is low when compared to 3G enabled smartphone. So, users can expect 1 GB of data to last the entire month with average usage.

8) More battery life. You can expect both the Firefox handsets to have a greater battery life when compared to other low cost Android handsets.

Stay tuned to this space to read the exclusive in-depth review of both Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 soon.

Got questions? Feel free to ask at the comment section below.

Intex's first Firefox smartphone coming today; to be priced under Rs 2,000

While Spice has already announced its Firefox smartphone, it's time for Intex to lift the veil of its first Firefox device. With the aim to take on Spice, the company will announce the launch of its Firefox phone in India on August 25.



Intex claims that the phone it is going to announce on Monday will be "India's lowest priced smartphone". It will be priced under Rs 2000.

The Firefox phone from Intex is expected to come with a 3.5-inch display, 2 megapixel camera and a 1GHz processor.

The Firefox phone from Intex is expected to come with a 3.5-inch display, 2 megapixel camera and a 1GHz processor.

Priced at Rs 2,299, Spice's Firefox phone - the Fire One Mi-FX 1 - will go on sale starting August 29. Spice's dual-SIM 2G handset features a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 1 GHz processor and 1.3 megapixel rear and 0.3 megapixel front cameras.

Earlier this year, Mozilla (developer of Firefox web browser) had tied up with Intex and Spice to bring smartphones priced at about $25 (about Rs 1,500) to India.

The Firefox devices will compete with phones using Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows platforms.
Low-cost handsets prices less than Rs 5,000 and smartphones priced below Rs 7,000 from Asian handset makers including Huawei, ZTE, Micromax and Karbonn have been driving growth in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa.

Technology giant Google, under its Android One initiative, has also partnered Spice, Micromax and Karbonn from India to deliver a smartphone under USD 100 (about Rs 6,000) to tap the market.

Smartphone sales in the country grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013, buoyed by affordable devices made by local firms such as Micromax and Karbonn, according to research firm IDC.

In the second quarter of 2014, smartphone sales grew 84 per cent to 18.42 million units from 10.02 million units (in April-June 2013 quarter, as per IDC data.

Samsung is the category leader with 29 per cent market share, Micromax (18 pc), Karbonn (8 pc) and Lava (6 pc).

"With the ultra-low cost Spice Fire One, we aim to convert the feature phone users into smartphone users. Our intentions are clearly to synthesise technology and style in our products and make them available at affordable prices," Spice Mobility Chief Executive Officer Prashant Bindal said.
The new handset also supports several Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Bengali.

"Just one year after the first Firefox OS device launched, Firefox OS smartphone is now available in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America. We are
confident that Firefox OS devices will realise a whole new category of smartphones with affordable price," Mozilla President Li Gong said.

Mozilla had showcased a smartphone prototype costing as little as USD 25 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, targeting developing countries including India and China.
Various reports suggest that the next billion population accessing the Internet for the first time will do so on their phones instead of personal computers.

Also, the next 100 million connected users are expected to demand mobile content and services in local languages across a range of smart devices at an affordable cost.

Companies like Microsoft, which acquired Nokia's handset division, are also targeting the affordable smartphone category aggressively, estimating it to be a $50 billion annual opportunity.
Other devices with Firefox OS to be available globally include the ZTE Open II and the Alcatel OneTouch Fire E.

Spice announces India’s 2nd Firefox OS phone at Rs 2299

The Fire One Mi – FX 1 by Spice is the second device to be announced for India at Rs 2299 with Firefox OS inside, Mozilla’s very own mobile OS that’s expected to kick Android in the teeth. So we may be exaggerating, but when it comes to letting manufacturers build cheap smartphones, Firefox OS is the only other rival to Google’s offering for now.



Before the Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 emerged, some details about the Intex Cloud FX running on the aforementioned OS were unveiled in June and the release date was supposed to fall in early August. But we’re almost at the end of the month and the said device is yet to be made available for sale. On the other hand, the Spice phone has been given a definite launch day of August 29.

The specifications sported by the Fire One smartphone are pretty basic and it’s mostly the Firefox OS which is the showstopper here. The OS is built around the emerging HTML5 web standard and there’s heavy focus on the internet. You see the problem here, don’t you? Consider the fact that you’ll be limping along on slow data speeds since the handset in question only supports 2G.

Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 specs at a glance:

- 3.5-inch 320 x 480p capacitive display
- Firefox OS
- Dual SIM slots
- 1GHz processor
- 2MP rear camera, 1.3MP webcam
- 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity

The Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 will hit online retailer Snapdeal for the price we’ve mentioned above on August 29. Saholic, retail outlets as well as Spice HotSpot stores will start selling the smartphone at a later date. We’re still awaiting information on its RAM, storage, battery power and so on.