Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones • Hacker News Board

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#91

Post by funkyy » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:33 PM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #9

Firefox appeared at a time when there was huge potential being stifled by a stagnant monopoly in the space, and people were desperate for something good. It filled a real need, and people loved it. FirefoxOS appeared at a time when there was huge potential being actively being pushed forward and innovated on by the two largest tech companies in the space, and people already had two great options to choose from. It fi…

Or maybe instead they could just make completely new, unique product. Something like Iphone was in its first release.

Firefox OS seems to be something between Android and IOS. They are trying to solve all the problems of those two but on the end are just average. Just another OS that really looks like Android for regular user.

Redesign everything and rethink the basics - go the way Windows Phone went, but with open environment and much more developer friendly space. Widnows Phone is an amazing piece of UIX and with great ideas, but it failed regarding supporting developers and making its store user friendly. This is where Firefox should aim, not another "better" version of something everyone knows to well.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#92

Post by karussell » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:34 PM UTC

johansch wrote: post #44

Most of you are probably not aware that Opera Software (where I spent a decade on Opera Mini/Mobile) went down the same rabbit hole around 2002-2006, spending many many man-years building a web-based (pre-smartphone) phone UI platform using web technologies. The product name was "Opera Platform". Here are some screenshots: http://imgur.com/on4gHdi It failed for the same, predictable reasons: Yes, there are many web d…

+1 interesting.

Started using Opera since ~2000 and really liked it. Really innovative (tabs, mouse gestures, download manager, ...) and fast! Even an email client was included :) !

But replaced it with Firefox by the time FF had tabs and was fast enough, due to 'trust/privacy' reasons. For the same reasons I do not use chrome.

And if FF keeps disappointing me and Opera gains trust I can imagine a switch :) (hmmh, but how if closed source?)

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#93

Post by Steko » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:35 PM UTC

frik wrote: post #34

gkoberger wrote: post #9

Firefox appeared at a time when there was huge potential being stifled by a stagnant monopoly in the space, and people were desperate for something good. It filled a real need, and people loved it. FirefoxOS appeared at a time when there was huge potential being actively being pushed forward and innovated on by the two largest tech companies in the space, and people already had two great options to choose from. It fi…

According to IDC the Worldwide Smartphone Market in 2015: Android ... 81.2% iOS ... 15.8% Windows Phone ... 2.2% Others ... 0.8% Worldwide Smartphone Forecast by OS for 2019: Android ... 82.6% iOS ... 14.1% Windows Phone ... 2.3% Others ... 0.9% Source: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS40664915 @downvoter: it's a forcast by the well known IDC, also the current market share (2015) is interesting on its ow…

Same 'forecasters' that had WP over 20% in 2015, lol.

http://cdn.geekwire.com/wp-content/uploads/idc21.jpg

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#94

Post by gtk40 » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:36 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #45

A few days ago, it looked like they were ditching Thunderbird so they could concentrate on their phone products. What's left besides Firefox? - "WebMaker", whatever that does. - Rust. - The $60 Mozilla hoodie. - Their world tour of meetups.[1] - The really fancy headquarters overlooking SF bay. A tight focus on Firefox might be a win. I'm looking forward to an all-Rust browser. [1] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contr…

SeaMonkey? Or is there practically no connection left with Mozilla? (I still use Composer for maintaining some basic stuff and use it on my netbook where it ironically is faster than Firefox).

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#95

Post by holyoly » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:39 PM UTC

gedrap wrote: post #49

untothebreach wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't buy the ZTE Open, it was a terrible phone

I had it. As far as I remember, it was a reasonable phone, especially for the price tag. The hardware was working ok and most of the issues were OS-related. The USB socket broke down after a bit more than half a year, however, I dropped the phone quite a few times, so couldn't blame the manufacturer.

The problem I had with it was when it was in my pocket for a couple hours, I would pull it out and it would be off. I'd have to pop the cover and pull the battery to get it to boot back up. If it wasn't for that, it wouldn't have been totally terrible.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#96

Post by johansch » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:39 PM UTC

karussell wrote: post #92

johansch wrote: post #44

Most of you are probably not aware that Opera Software (where I spent a decade on Opera Mini/Mobile) went down the same rabbit hole around 2002-2006, spending many many man-years building a web-based (pre-smartphone) phone UI platform using web technologies. The product name was "Opera Platform". Here are some screenshots: http://imgur.com/on4gHdi It failed for the same, predictable reasons: Yes, there are many web d…

+1 interesting. Started using Opera since ~2000 and really liked it. Really innovative (tabs, mouse gestures, download manager, ...) and fast! Even an email client was included :) ! But replaced it with Firefox by the time FF had tabs and was fast enough, due to 'trust/privacy' reasons. For the same reasons I do not use chrome. And if FF keeps disappointing me and Opera gains trust I can imagine a switch :) (hmmh, bu…

"We" (I have since left Opera Software) really screwed it up with the desktop browser around 2004. Management (i.e. the then-CEO Jon) was too worried about recurring revenue to pull that obnoxious ad banner in the free version until it was too late. At the time the desktop Opera had superior performance compared to Mozilla/Firefox.. but wasn't free/ad-less. It was really depressing to watch. (But at the same time, I didn't have to make payroll for 170 people each month, so who am I to judge those decisions without having detailed insights into the financials? I guess I am expressing my frustration of the lack of a silicon valley-style funding.)

To his credit, Jon a year later championed that Opera Mini needed to be free/without "in your face ads" in the critical first couple of years. This allowed it to reach 250+ million monthly actives (it still has that!). And we did came up with really lucrative monetization models later on that worked without sacrificing the user experience.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#97

Post by gsnedders » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:40 PM UTC

lewisl9029 wrote: post #36

gkoberger wrote: post #9

Firefox appeared at a time when there was huge potential being stifled by a stagnant monopoly in the space, and people were desperate for something good. It filled a real need, and people loved it. FirefoxOS appeared at a time when there was huge potential being actively being pushed forward and innovated on by the two largest tech companies in the space, and people already had two great options to choose from. It fi…

Completely agree that they should turn their focus towards solving privacy and identity management. I'm hoping that this might mean they can direct some resources towards Persona development again. Or at least experiment with something new in this area.

The problem is solving privacy and identity management in the mobile space is hard given how vertically integrated both the iOS and Android eco-systems by Apple and Google respectively. Firefox (and Opera) had failed to make any headway into Android in the years prior.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#98

Post by zanny » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:41 PM UTC

funkyy wrote: post #91

gkoberger wrote: post #9

Firefox appeared at a time when there was huge potential being stifled by a stagnant monopoly in the space, and people were desperate for something good. It filled a real need, and people loved it. FirefoxOS appeared at a time when there was huge potential being actively being pushed forward and innovated on by the two largest tech companies in the space, and people already had two great options to choose from. It fi…

Or maybe instead they could just make completely new, unique product. Something like Iphone was in its first release. Firefox OS seems to be something between Android and IOS. They are trying to solve all the problems of those two but on the end are just average. Just another OS that really looks like Android for regular user. Redesign everything and rethink the basics - go the way Windows Phone went, but with open e…

They shouldn't be off doing their own thing in the "not Google / Apple / Microsoft" phone scene. Canonical, the now dieing Jolla, and Mozilla were all doing their own thing and years later Ubuntu Touch is still an unfinished mess with no forseeable legit launch worth mentioning (3rd parties have sold Ubuntu Touch phones, and the UX was awful), Jolla is bankrupt, and Mozilla just gave up.

Plasma Mobile has the right idea. Build the platform, let communities form around the layers above it (and below it) and just try to get people working together on one goal (especially since all these mobile OS projects are all using Qt, all using Wayland, all using Linux). Lets just hope the KDE guys don't vaporware this one like Plasma Active, it sure would be lovely if Unity 8 got rebased on top of it, and used xdg-app like the community is pushing towards. Firefox could even get in on it as the default browser with great integrated webapp support.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#99

Post by Retra » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:43 PM UTC

Certhas wrote: post #22

gkoberger wrote: post #9

Firefox appeared at a time when there was huge potential being stifled by a stagnant monopoly in the space, and people were desperate for something good. It filled a real need, and people loved it. FirefoxOS appeared at a time when there was huge potential being actively being pushed forward and innovated on by the two largest tech companies in the space, and people already had two great options to choose from. It fi…

But when they tried to pioneer privacy respecting ads in the new tab window, they were repeatedly and roundly criticised here, too...

How is letting someone else pay them to waste my time beyond criticism?

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#100

Post by gsnedders » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 9:43 PM UTC

ake1 wrote: post #89

rimantas wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC Opera had it years ago. Maybe even before there was Firefox.

they had ads but only in the free version, if you bought opera there were no ads.

Well… of sorts. The default set on Speed Dial were (and are) sold, which you can easily construe as adverts.