Sony Firefox OS phone is India bound, Xperia E -based

It certainly seems to be the case lately that more and more smartphone manufacturers are realizing the important of India in the mobile marketplace. With phones such as the Nexus 4, Sony Xperia Z, HTC One and more all coming to India, the country is receiving all of the major handsets and now we have news that Sony is to bring a Firefox OS phone to India. It will be based on the Sony Xperia E and we feel many of our readers in India will be pleased to hear this news.

A week ago we told how Apple was continuing its wooing of Indian customers to the iPhone and recognizing India as one of the world’s fastest growing smartphone markets and we’ve also been talking for some time about Mozilla’s development of a Firefox operating system for mobile devices. Recently we told readers that the Firefox OS was set to release in 2013 in around 18 regions including Brazil, Spain, Poland, Venezuela and more and in the US at sometime in 2014. We also told how manufacturers such as ZTE, Alcatel, LG and Huawei have all said they will be producing phones running the new OS.
However there was not previously a mention of a Firefox OS phone for India but new reports say that Sony will soon release such a device for India and that it will be based on Sony’s Xperia E smartphone. Apparently the Firefox OS phone for India is already being worked on and will have apps and tweaks specifically for the Indian market according to an ‘insider’ at Sony.
As a brief recap we can tell you that the Xperia E has a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 3.5-inch display, 3.2-megapixel rear camera, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD to 32GB. The Firefox OS Xperia phone is said to have the same specs as the Xperia E with the only difference being Firefox instead of the Android Jelly Bean OS.
An experimental ROM of Firefox OS for the Xperia E has already been created that can be released to developers and enthusiasts so that Sony can receive feedback. The Sony source also stated that India will be one of the first markets where Sony will release a Firefox OS device and that an announcement should be expected in the following few months.
It’s an interesting time for India regarding the smartphone marketplace and we’d like to ask our readers in India what they feel about this. Are you pleased that major phone manufacturers are finally acknowledging the influence of the market in India? What do you feel about this Xperia E-based Firefox phone from Sony heading your way? Let us know with your comments.
Source: IBNLive