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.
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.
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