Firefox OS/Flame

Flame - the Firefox OS Reference Phone

The Flame reference phone offers a representative set of specs for where Mozilla is focusing core Firefox OS development in 2014 and 2015. The Flame is here to help developers build great content and experiences for Firefox OS and to simplify the development and testing of Firefox OS itself.

Status:

• 2014-02-xx Final hardware completed.
• 2014-04-27 Retail site and pre-orders underway.
• 2014-06-30 Final Flame Firefox OS 1.3 build completed (v122.)
• 2014-07-10 Retail Flames start shipping to customers.

Main Flame landing page for developers

See the MDN Flame page for developer details such as getting hold of devices, updating software, etc.

Getting a Flame

Our strategy with Flame distribution is to start with the small teams of people who can fix issues that would block the next larger distribution group, then distribute out more broadly, rinse, and repeat.

Several months ago, we began deploying Flames to core team members, about 200 people. That group discovered numerous issues and has been hard at work fixing those. With several of the key bugs fixed, we deployed another 400 or so phones to Mozillians. As it turns out, we weren't quite ready for that and had to pull many of those back in to fix a bug with the over-the-air update system. Now that we've got final 1.3 builds for the Flame, we're completing the work of distributing to the remainder of the core Firefox OS team and prepping the first Flame contribution programs.

Core Firefox OS team members. If you are a core member of the Firefox OS development effort, you should already have a Flame phone. If you do not, please reach out to your leadership and ask for one.

Retail. If you are not a member of the Firefox OS development team, you can purchase one, as detailed on the MDN page.

Targeted feedback and apps programs. Mozilla has several of these programs underway and planned, including Free Flames for apps.

Foxtrot. We have about 200 devices available for members of our community (volunteers and employees) who are not part of the core OS dev teams, who will use the phones regularly, and who will participate in product surveys, focused testing efforts, and be available to help us gauge the quality of specific features and the overall product.

Status as of 7/25/14: applications were submitted during mid-July and are now under review by the Foxtrot team. When we've evaluated all of the applications, we'll notify and start sending out Flames to Foxtrot participants.

Summary Distribution Status:

• Late April, Mozilla received 400 of its order of ~2000 Flames
• Late May, Mozilla received another 1000 of its order of Flames
• May, About 400 Flames distributed to core Firefox OS team members via team leaders.
• June, Mozilla received remainder of Flame order.
• May 27, Retail site launched with 5000 Flames available.
• Retail site down from June 11 - June 19. Restored as of June 20.
• July 3, Foxtrot program launched (details above)
• July 10, first orders from retail site shipped
• July 25, build and USB Windows Driver downloads posted on MDN.

* Nightly builds downloads and updates are still in development. Expected first half of August.

Public Builds

We now have public builds available along with a link to a Windows USB driver on the MDN Flame page.

For the more adventurous seeking earlier builds, see the Foxtrot wiki page.

Internal Flame builds

(Mozilla employees only) early builds and instructions available at https://intranet.mozilla.org/QA/B2G_Tips_and_Tricks#Reference_Phone_.28Flame.29

FAQs

• Q: What's the difference between the Flame and the ZTE Open C?
• A: The Flame hardware is far more complete than the ZTE Open C. For a "reference device" we need all of the hardware in the phone that our software supports. The ZTE device does not include several critical pieces of hardware including: front-facing camera. auto-focus and flash on main camera. NFC. Dual-SIM. Software-configurable RAM (up to 1GB that's in the phone, compared to half that in the ZTE). While the ZTE Open C is a fine device, it's just not "complete" in terms of being able to support all of Firefox OS software development.