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

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#41

Post by untothebreach » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:35 PM UTC

gedrap wrote: post #23

yenda wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FirefoxOS was a perfect fit for me on the paper but I never got how to buy one here in France. I'm stucked with Android and I don't like it.

ZTE was selling their ZTE Open C which came with FirefoxOS 1.3 on ebay.co.uk, that's where I bought it from. I lived in the UK at the moment but I believe they were shipping it worldwide. Checked the ebay listings again, there are a few sellers from Australia, the USA but seems like the ZTE listing is gone.

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

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#42

Post by Apocryphon » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:36 PM UTC

So it seems like Firefox OS itself will continue to be iterated upon, it's just that Mozilla will no longer try to use it as a means to create a third commercial way as opposed to iOS/Android: http://firefoxoscentral.com/2015/12/firefox-os-is-dead-firef...

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#43

Post by spinchange » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:37 PM UTC

I always wondered why they didn't try a tablet first. Like the Chromebooks, but in tablet form, heavy on Firefox branding. Maybe this too is something that would've been an 'also-ran' or market failure, but I still want one even as I type this.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#44

Post by johansch » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:38 PM UTC

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 developers in the world compared to the number of (in this example) embedded rtos UI C/C++ developers. However, on resource-constrained platforms (as phones tend to be, since they are battery-powered) it's really hard and requires brilliant developers to be able to build web-based UIs that can compete in performance with non-web-based UIs built by (in comparison) not-so-brilliant developers.

And on top of this, Mozilla decided to shoot for (super) low-end devices as their main target - presumably because their bizdev people had spotted a theoretical opportunity, but failed to connect with engineering, or vice-versa. The first time I saw that I just laughed out loud, to be honest.

They actually have a time-honored tradition of following in the footsteps of Opera when it comes to ways of making money. Those sponsored tiles introduced in Firefox last year? Opera did that in 2008/2009-ish. (Not to mention the concept of a graphical speed dial on the new tab page itself...) That Google search field to the right of the URL field? Opera pioneered that business model in 2001 - followed by Mozilla and Apple half a decade later. Sorry, I get carried away. :D

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#45

Post by Animats » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:38 PM UTC

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/contribute/events/

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#46

Post by reddotX » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:38 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #24

That's too bad but like everyone else said pretty obvious what the outcome would be. I wonder what a third player in the mobile OS market would look like and if it's even possible at this point. Microsoft is basically number 3 at this point, right? Yet they have so little market share that companies are activity leaving their marketplace. I wonder if the next mobile OS isn't an OS that requires apps to survive but, i…

Ubuntu Phone looks interesting and has great potential with the conergence

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#47

Post by cpeterso » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:39 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...

Showing privacy-respecting ads in the browser does nothing to improve the state of the advertising on the Web itself.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#48

Post by on_and_off » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:41 PM UTC

bpicolo wrote: post #12

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…

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).

>"If you build it they will come"

The feedback I received from the people that tested the platform development wise was that they had not built it yet.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#49

Post by gedrap » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:43 PM UTC

untothebreach wrote: post #41

gedrap wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ZTE was selling their ZTE Open C which came with FirefoxOS 1.3 on ebay.co.uk, that's where I bought it from. I lived in the UK at the moment but I believe they were shipping it worldwide. Checked the ebay listings again, there are a few sellers from Australia, the USA but seems like the ZTE listing is gone.

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.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#50

Post by dvirsky » Tue, Dec 08, 2015, 8:43 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #31

Remember, the point of Firefox OS was not to challenge or take over the market with Firefox OS devices. It was to develop web APIs for phone things, like the dialer, video, voice, accelerometer, etc. And they succeeded! That's why the statement says "We are proud of the benefits Firefox OS added to the Web platform". Other browsers adopted the tech, and all phone browsers are better off for the project. That's a win.

There was a lot of money and work invested by Mozilla and their strategic partners in FxOS (e.g. Telefonica) to actually make a dent in the market.