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Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

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Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#211

Post by zbraniecki »

johansch wrote: post #185
zbraniecki wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those were the actual goals. Next time you want to spread theories and rumors, check background of who you are questioning ;) Source: I work at Mozilla and on Firefox OS project.

I got that. I am just questioning whether you and the executive management at Mozilla had the same goals.

I'm pretty sure about it. Please, remember that B2G for quite a while was a "homemade style" experiment started by Andreas.

It took Mozilla quite a while before executive team started considering it and investing in it.

The post I linked sums up the vibe from the very beginning. I believe that there was time when the goals have shifted to aim at producing a real product and gaining market share etc., but the original goals are stated in the post and I believe we are very successful in accomplishing them.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#212

Post by niutech »

quanticle wrote: post #28
bpicolo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outside of hacker news, I haven't heard of Firefox OS even once. They had no marketing to speak of, and you have to complete HARD on marketing to get into that market. "If you build it they will come" isn't a valid benchmark when there's already two options with massive market share that consumers are more or less happy with. (Since it's talked about in some replies, I live in the US).

Not to mention that FirefoxOS wasn't even properly built. I have yet to see (and given today's news, probably will never see) a review of FirefoxOS where the reviewer doesn't mention the OS crashing multiple times.

My Alcatel with FxOS 2 does not crash at all.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#213

Post by spinchange »

dragonwriter wrote: post #205
spinchange wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally nothing except a different form factor. FWIW, I wish there were Chrometablets too. The Pixel C is headed this way in form, but unfortunately toward Android and native apps instead of ChromeOS and the Web.

> The Pixel C is headed this way in form, but unfortunately toward Android and native apps instead of ChromeOS and the Web. The web -- though not Google's non-standard Chrome apps through the browser, as yet -- works quite well on Android.

Indeed. I use Android devices and think the market is headed toward native vs. the web too, I just hope it's not zero sum. ChromeOS is arguably less functional than Android, but there are use cases for it, and its stripped-down, web-only nature, in many respects is a feature, not a bug. I also really don't like commercial app stores. Discovery is terrible and then who wants to try a couple different versions of an app, before finding the best in class, if not immediately obvious? At least with web apps discovery is easier and switching costs much lower. Native apps also feel less configurable, less extensible, silo'ed off, and don't offer the freedom software provides for on a desktop anyway. I know this all may change in the future - I'm hopeful it does!

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#214

Post by niutech »

mahouse wrote: post #55
gedrap wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah, I've read about them targeting some specific countries (Spain, Brazil, Poland, etc). So it might be that the parent commentator lives elsewhere and didn't get targeted :)

Telefónica, the major carrier in Spain, sold some Firefox OS phones years ago under the promise that there would be a version of WhatsApp for Firefox OS soon. That never happened. They eventually stopped selling them. (Not implying there is any correlation between those two last facts.)

There is Whatsapp client Loqui IM.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#215

Post by intopieces »

sremani wrote: post #52
frik wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Will Windows Phone/ Windows Mobile be around 2019, as a die-hard WP user, I hope so. I just do not like those icon based OSes.

What is it that makes you a die-hard WP user? As someone who works for a company with mobile applications, we've had a hard time seeing the value in this platform and I'd like to change that.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#216

Post by gutnor »

nextos wrote: post #71
lewisl9029 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I really agree on this. They should focus on a browser that respects privacy and email that respects privacy (perhaps by resuming Thunderbird development). On top of that, I'd argue IM + video/audio chat that respects privacy is something that desperately needs better solutions. I'd push software forward, and then innovate on protocols. Peer to peer might be the only way to achieve true privacy.

Imagine a browser that has a privacy mode using tor ? Privacy in browser nowadays is privacy from your wife or kids, not privacy from anything on the server side.

Seeing how hostile most of the western governments are toward privacy on the internet, that's probably not the best long term strategy for Mozilla though. They could quickly find themselves labelled terrorist organisation ( by mistake ) and have their account frozen ( by mistake ) for a long period of time ( due process, can't rush those stuff )

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#217

Post by detroitcoder »

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…

e-mail

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#218

Post by hackuser »

What is the future of Mozilla and of open platforms?

1) Without FirefoxOS, what is Mozilla's future on mobile devices? The Firefox browser, while I think it's great, has very low adoption on mobiles. I'm not sure content-blockers are enough, and they now need the platform owner's cooperation to get their product in front of users (i.e., to get into the app store and to be compatible with the user systems).

2) Without a future on mobile devices, what is Mozilla's future? How influential can they be while playing no role on the most popular Internet platform?

3) Without a player on mobile devices, what is the future of open platforms in general? On the desktop there are several mature operating systems and ecosystems but what is there on mobile? Can open platforms be relevant without a presence on mobile? Where are the BSDs for mobile? GNU tools? Vim?

There are Android forks, but they depend on the continued generosity of the market leader (to release AOSP, a version of Android designed for that purpose). And having looked around for a good option, I can report that the various forks are unambitious, provide little to differentiate themselves from Android, and their organization and support don't inspire confidence.

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