LONDON - The Open smartphone running Firefox OS has sold out on eBay in the United Kingdom and the United States after just three days.

The phone was retailing for £59.99 (S$120) in the UK and US$79.99 (S$102) in the US.

It was released on the site on Friday, but by Monday both the US and UK eBay stores of ZTE, the Chinese company which manufactured the handset, had sold out.

The budget phone will now no longer be available until the next production run, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The Open comes unlocked and is completely web-based, so users do not need to download and install apps.

In terms of specs, The Open comes with a 3.5-inch screen, 1GHz processor, 3.2-megapixel camera and 512MB of integrated storage.

Mozilla, the non-profit organisation behind the open-source Firefox web browser, announced it would be developing a mobile operating system earlier in the year.

“Mozilla is dedicated to moving the web forward as a platform for innovation and building products that people love,” said Dr Li Gong, a vice president at Mozilla.

“We are pleased that now we will put the full power of the web in even more people’s hands.

“With a great potential user base, we know that even more developers around the world will create their apps with new APIs to stimulate an inspiring new wave of innovation.”

He added that the device was ideal for consumers looking to upgrade to a smartphone for the first time.

While the phone’s low price and open platforms may give it an advantage in some areas of the market place, it remains to be seen whether it is capable of taking on the iOS, Android and Microsoft operating systems.

Mozilla posted revenues of US$121 million in 2011, compared with a combined total of US$200 billion for the top three operating systems providers.

The Open Firefox OS has already been launched in Spain, Venezuela and Colombia on the Telefonica network. AGENCIES