RIO DE JANEIRO — Telefónica Vivo presented the first range of smartphones with the Firefox operating system in Brazil during the Futurecom event this week. Vivo is currently the only telecom operator in the country to sell LG and Alcatel devices.
The release follows Firefox device launches by Telefónica in Spain, Venezuela and Colombia; and Deutsche Telekom, in Poland. In Brazil, the Firefox OS smartphones are focused on entry-level users; they will cost approximately $13 with postpaid plans and $91 with prepaid packages.
“The goal is to provide cheaper equipment to allow people from the base of [the economic] pyramid to buy them,” said Antonio Carlos Valente, president of Telefónica Vivo.
Jan Sullivan, COO of Mozilla, expressed the same sentiment during a meeting with members of the press. “We believe we are doing a good thing for end users because people are moving from feature phones to their first smartphones,” Sullivan said.
Two devices were released: the LG Fireweb and Alcatel One Touch Fire. The first is manufactured locally, while the second will be imported initially. The company is still deciding if it will produce device in Brazil. LG has an exclusive contract with Telefónica until the end of the fourth quarter this year.
Vivo is hoping that these two smartphones will boost Christmas sales since they will be sold along with a six-month, 100-megabyte data package promotion.
As for Firefox’s plans in Latin America, Sullivan said future launches will take place in Peru, Uruguay and Mexico, among others.
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BlackBerry announced the BlackBerry Q5 smartphone will be available in Brazil the first week of November. The all new BlackBerry Q5 smartphone features a QWERTY keyboard and comes with BlackBerry 10 functionality.
