Introduced in January this year, Fira – a subsidiary of Polytron announced Fira OS – a proprietary software which is built by and specifically built for natives of Indonesia. This surely helps the company distinguishes its new products from the many others in the market already.
Fira OS is said to be inspired by the MIUI on smartphones by Xiaomi and is complaint with the Indonesian government’s regulation requiring the presence of about 30% to 40% of local content on all 4G LTE smartphones on sale in the country starting in 2017.
Fira OS Features
Fira UI on smartphones have a bright alluring look, larger application icons and easy customised wallpaper and widget process. Asides the interface, some of the other features of Fira includes – Fira Pay, Fira Pulse Check, Fira Store, Fira ID and Fira Directory.
Fira ID is the master identification of all Fira features for each user. Once the user has this, access to Fira Pay (connected to user’s credit card to make mobile transactions) and Fira Store for purchasing digital contents is guaranteed. Directory does location and contact information searchs locally on the device and also online.
The ROM is developed on Android 5.1 Lollipop OS and requires devices with nothing less than 1GB RAM and 1.2GHz processors but the UI is very responsive on devices. It is pre-loaded on Five Polytron smartphones already – the Zap 6 Posh Note, Zap 6 Posh, Zap 6 Cleo, Zap 6 Power and Zap 6 Note.
In a market which is still very low in smartphone penetration (about 30% as at 2015) and having sold over 3 million smartphone units since 2012, Polytron will be hoping that Fira OS kick-starts the increased use of smartphones in Indonesia.
Author Profile: Sonia Abdi is an Indonesian Freelance writer, loves to dance in the Rain and Sing in the Shower.
