Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain at $3 a month

  Firefox OS phone launches Tuesday in Spain

Spain-based carrier Telefonica will release on Tuesday the very first Firefox OS phone -- the inexpensive ZTE Open. The launch is a significant milestone in Mozilla's attempt to crack the Apple and Google mobile strongholds. Stephen Shankland by Stephen Shankland July 1, 2013 3:01 AM PDT 24 comments Facebook337 Twitter437 Linked In34 More Firefox OS, shown here on the ZTE Open, has a gallery app, but if you want to share photos, you have to do so one at a time. Firefox OS, shown here on the ZTE Open, has a gallery app, but if you want to share photos, you have to do so one at a time. (Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET) It's not every day that a new mobile operating system arrives, but Tuesday will be one of them as Telefonica begins selling the inexpensive ZTE Open with Mozilla's Firefox OS in Spain. The move marks the commercial beginning of an effort by phone makers and network operators to use Mozilla's open-source, browser-based operating system to reclaim power in the mobile market lost to Apple and Google. The phone itself costs 69 euros ($90), including 30 euros ($39) of pay-as-you-go credit -- or for those who sign up for a two-year contract, for 2.38 euros ($3.10) per month. That's a lot cheaper than most of the new Android and iOS smartphones on the market today that consumers have flocked to and that Firefox OS is competing with. The ZTE Open won't impress smartphone power users who want more than its 3.5-inch 480x320-pixel touchscreen, 3.2MP camera, 256MB RAM, and 512MB flash memory that's boosted with an included 4GB microSD card. But it's not designed to win them over; it's more for new and cost-conscious smartphone buyers, Yotam Benami, Telefonica's digital director of open Web devices, said in an interview. 

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Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom

  Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom

Catering to customers who want a point-and-shoot camera built into their smartphones, Samsung offers an Android device with a 16-megapixel camera and 10x zoom lens. Stephen Shankland by Stephen Shankland June 12, 2013 2:07 AM PDT 69 comments Facebook799 Twitter252 Linked In16 More The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom marries an Android 4.2-based smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera that uses a 10x zoom lens. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom marries an Android 4.2-based smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera that uses a 10x zoom lens. (Credit: Samsung) Samsung's S4 Galaxy Zoom -- which combines an Android smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera and 10x zoom lens -- is real. The model isn't likely to appeal to the mainstream smartphone buyer. But in an Android market crowded with options, a niche that caters to a particular subset can be a reasonable approach -- especially if that subset is as passionate, enthusiastic, and willing to part with money as photographers often are.