ZTE is selling its Firefox OS smartphone, the Open C, exclusively through eBay before putting it on general release next month.

The handset is a cheap-as-chips device with a 4-inch 800 x 480 screen, 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage (expandable by up to a further 32GB through microSD).

It's 3G, has a rear 3-megapixel camera and features the latest version of Mozilla's Firefox operating system. A 1,400mAh battery provides power.

The phone has been simultaneously launched on eBay in the UK, US, Germany, Russia and many other countries. It costs £69.99 SIM-free in the UK and is currently being listed with free delivery as a "buy it now" item.

It's not the first time that ZTE has turned to eBay to sell its handsets, having sold the ZTE Open last August on the online retail platform. It sold out within three days, so the company will be looking to repeat the feat this time around.

"We’re excited that ZTE has again decided on debut its Open C on eBay," said John Lin, CEO of eBay Greater China.

"eBay, with its 145 million active buyers around the world, is uniquely positioned to help Chinese brands such as ZTE to reach global consumers directly and expand worldwide."

You can buy the ZTE Open C from ebay.co.uk and local versions worldwide.