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I speculate that Android is starting to worry about Firefox OS, so they are starting to address the ultra cheap smartphone market. However, I'm bullish on Firefox OS winning this market simply because it will always be able to undercut on price. You just need fewer resources to run Firefox OS, so you will always be able to sell cheaper phones.

The original Android OS was targeted at low-resource devices. Android will run fine on trailing-edge specs on the cheapest devices now made for the smartphone market.

Furthermore, Web pages and Web apps can easily out-consume the fattest resource-heavy apps, and a Web runtime is no lightweight compared to ART (or Dalvik, for that matter).

It just doesn't make sense to target a Web OS under the kind of hardware Android will run on.

Here's Vodacom's (in South Africa) $50 Android KitKat phone: http://www.techcentral.co.za/vodacom-smart-kicka-review/5018... -- it's at the very least prettier. :P

(This smartphone at this price-point is actually an extremely big deal for the gigantic emerging African market.)

You can also buy a new Moto G (no contract) for about $50 on the Internet, and it's a much better phone.

The $50 Kitkat Android phone