ZTE is planning a new Firefox OS phone with a larger screen, dual-core processor and redesigned UI for release in the first half of next year.
TechHive spoke with executive vice president He Shiyou, who said ZTE was pleased with the 100,000 units sold of the ZTE Open. He attributed a lot of that to sales through eBay and other third-party retailers.
The next ZTE Firefox device will be priced around the same $80 range as the Open.
Shiyou sounded encouraged with how fast Firefox OS is developing and attributed the future success of HTML5-based smartphone applications to faster LTE speeds. He didn’t confirm it but that comment seems to suggest the next ZTE Firefox phone will support LTE.
But he was confident enough to say that Web-based phones will lead to a future where the “app store business model will be no more.”
As hyped as ZTE sounds on Firefox OS, the Chinese OEM’s focus remains on making Android handsets. And the strategy has worked so far, with IDC’s second quarter smartphone shipment data putting ZTE as the fifth biggest smartphone OEM in the world.