Verizon seems like an odd choice in the U.S., to me they seem like a 'premium' brand somewhat more expensive than their competitors, while Firefox OS, at least prior to know, seems to have been positioning itself as a budget option.
Verizon has the best coverage in rural areas, at least where people I know live: southeast Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and Iowa. Many of my (and my friends') relatives in these areas still use flip phones or have reluctantly upgraded to iPhones or Android. Verizon is wise to have an option that's not a smartphone and not total junk.
I just upgraded my ZTE Open C to FxOS 3.0. This phone is similar, but worse, in specs to the original Moto E. It runs well, as long as you are using it for basic purposes.
Any tips or links you can share for getting your Open C to FxOS 3.0? Did you have to first upgrade the base image from JellyBean to KitKat? Were you able to shallow flash a nightly image or did you have to build everything yourself? I have an Open C and am on 2.1, but haven't yet tried to move past that. Thanks!
I had played with using the Flame images a while back, but I had never gotten around to building anything myself. Just a couple days ago I read that the EU Ebay version (but not the FR version!) is the same as (or similar enough to) the US version, so the MozFR builds here work: http://builds.firefoxos.mozfr.org/doc/en/devices/zte-open-c-...
I haven't tried SIM/phone-related function yet, but everything else is working for me.
For people in cities or inner suburbs, you may see it as a premium brand, as it does tend to be more expensive than the competition.
For people living in further out suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas, Verizon is pretty much a requirement. None of the other carriers have coverage that is nearly as good; you actually want your phone to work outside of a thin strip around the interstates, you buy Verizon.
It's also worth raising an eyeball over (but probably not dropping a monocle over) Mozilla being one of the strongest proponents of strong (e.g., Title II) network neutrality regulation, and Verizon being probably the telecoms most opposed, and like the one that will put the most effort into lobbying and using to overturn net neutrality.
Verizon seems like an odd choice in the U.S., to me they seem like a 'premium' brand somewhat more expensive than their competitors, while Firefox OS, at least prior to know, seems to have been positioning itself as a budget option.