2:49:00 PM
Mozilla Corp.’s
brief attempt at making a smartphone operating system, and eventually
competing with the likes of Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows and
Samsung’s Tizen platforms, has finally come to an end. Ari Jaaksi,
senior vice-president, Connected Devices, Mozilla, confirmed this in a
series of tweets from the Mozlando 2015 event in Orlando, Florida,
earlier on Wednesday. Firefox OS for phones was announced two and a half
years ago.
“#Mozilla will stop offering Firefox OS phones through carriers. But we will continue improving web experience on smartphones. #mozlando”. Jaaksi announced the fact that Firefox OS meant for affordable smartphones will not receive any further development. (Read more here . )
With Firefox OS meant for affordable smartphones, Mozilla had hoped to wean away a large chunk of users from affordable Android phones, which at that point of time, really didn’t offer a great user experience. The first +Firefox OS phone in India was the Intex Cloud FX (Rs.1,999; Read review here ). It did not have very powerful specs, and the software itself had certain usability issues. The HTML5 approach to app development seriously restricted the number of third party apps, which meant we really didn’t have much else to play around with apart from the default apps preloaded on the phone. It was more of a web-centric phone that came much before its time, and the approach itself was far too different from what people had experienced with Android and Windows phones.
However, Mozilla has gone on to reassure the developer community that it is actually not killing the Firefox OS, and instead, this is just a realignment of the focus. “We will enter IoT by using technology from #firefoxos. It is a very cool starting point. The beginning -- not an end! #mozlando,” says Jaaksi.
This actually isn’t actually a bolt from the blue. Jaaksi’s hiring in October was the biggest indication that Mozilla was enhancing focus on the entire Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. And rather than develop a new platform for those devices, it makes perfect sense to use an existing product that has been grossly underutilized all this while.
“#Mozilla will stop offering Firefox OS phones through carriers. But we will continue improving web experience on smartphones. #mozlando”. Jaaksi announced the fact that Firefox OS meant for affordable smartphones will not receive any further development. (Read more here . )
With Firefox OS meant for affordable smartphones, Mozilla had hoped to wean away a large chunk of users from affordable Android phones, which at that point of time, really didn’t offer a great user experience. The first +Firefox OS phone in India was the Intex Cloud FX (Rs.1,999; Read review here ). It did not have very powerful specs, and the software itself had certain usability issues. The HTML5 approach to app development seriously restricted the number of third party apps, which meant we really didn’t have much else to play around with apart from the default apps preloaded on the phone. It was more of a web-centric phone that came much before its time, and the approach itself was far too different from what people had experienced with Android and Windows phones.
However, Mozilla has gone on to reassure the developer community that it is actually not killing the Firefox OS, and instead, this is just a realignment of the focus. “We will enter IoT by using technology from #firefoxos. It is a very cool starting point. The beginning -- not an end! #mozlando,” says Jaaksi.
This actually isn’t actually a bolt from the blue. Jaaksi’s hiring in October was the biggest indication that Mozilla was enhancing focus on the entire Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. And rather than develop a new platform for those devices, it makes perfect sense to use an existing product that has been grossly underutilized all this while.
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