Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 331 posts

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#62

Post by yenda »

mei0Iesh wrote: post #53
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…

Phoenix appeared at a time when web browsers were bloated, and it was refreshing to have a minimalist app that simply browsed the web. It wasn't that potential was being stifled; other browsers had too many features. It was that we could download a small binary on dial-up, that opened up quickly and just did what we needed without any fluff. Notice that last part about downloading? That's the key. We could download P…

Good point, maybe a hack that would be runnable from android to override it on the phone would have done the trick

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#64

Post by petercooper »

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).

They didn't seem to make any effort to get it into the hands of people who might actually talk about it either. I follow a ton of hardware reviewer types and never once saw Firefox OS phones come up. I know literally one person who bought one out of curiosity.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#65

Post by striking »

spinchange wrote: post #43

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.

What would that solve that a Chromebook wouldn't?

Chromebooks already run Linux when so coerced, and are the most bulletproof computing platform for education and business. What could be special about the FirefoxBook?

Perhaps, instead of expending that much effort to engineer a new tablet entirely from scratch, find an Android tablet and put a Mozilla sticker on it.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#66

Post by rimantas »

digi_owl wrote: post #54
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…

I dunno. From what i am seeing, Apple and Google are busy rearranging UI deck chairs. The major problem of FirefoxOS though was trying to pitch the whole "everyone can (re)write apps" to a market that is all about user lock-in. Every OEM and carrier wants to be the landlord of the phone "owner", taking a bite out of everything the user does with the device. But if every app is a web page, and all the code is out in t…

  > But if every app is a web page, and all the code is out in
  > the open, it is quite easy for the user to disable and
  > strip out rent extraction code.
No. There should be more than a billion smartphones/tablets sold, what do you think is the ratio of those who can do what you told to those who have no idea? And what is the ratio of those who can willing to do it instead of just using the app?

And there is also the issue that if your app is just the web page, it is either universal and thus crap on all devices, or highly customized for each platform at which point it would be easier and less messy just to write it natively.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#67

Post by rimantas »

Omniusaspirer wrote: post #33
Certhas wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"Pioneer"? Really? Is the bar so low now that embedding ads into the browser is considered innovative?

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

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#68

Post by rimantas »

Raed667 wrote: post #37
ris wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The IoT space is a mess right now" But is also almost entirely vapour. Seeing this news gave me relief that Mozilla might be pulling their heads out of the clouds chasing fantastical dreams of mobile platforms, but if anything IoT is worse!

IoT lacks consistant "full-stack" standards. Someone as big as Mozilla could make things less messier by adopting standards on some/all layers of IoT. This is an area worth exploring "for the greater good".

Foe me IoT lacks the problem that needs solving. And we do know what happens to the solutions without the problem.

Re: Mozilla Will Stop Developing and Selling Firefox OS Smartphones

#69

Post by scott_karana »

[deleted] wrote: post #63

[deleted]

> Our mission is to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web.

How is Firefox OS contrary to that, exactly?

I agree that they could use better focus, but FirefoxOS was entirely within their stated scope. (Even if it was a strategic blunder)

Post reply on HN