Firefox OS now completely dead as Mozilla lays off entire connected devices team

[midian182]

Mozilla isn’t having much success when it comes to expanding the reach of its most famous product. The company ceased development and sales of Firefox OS smartphones just over a year ago, saying it would use technology from the open-source operating system to enter the Internet of Things space. Now, that effort has also died.

The elimination of the IoT team will affect around 50 people. Some of them may be able to remain at the company, as Mozilla has opened new positions that employees from its connected devices initiative can apply for. The section’s senior vice president, Ari Jaaksi, is also leaving. He follows the team’s director of software, Bertrand Neveux, out of the door.

"We have shifted our internal approach to the internet-of-things opportunity," Mozilla said in a statement on Thursday, "to step back from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development, dissolving our connected devices initiative and incorporating our internet-of-things explorations into an increased focus on emerging technologies."

Unveiled in February 2013, Firefox OS was primarily targeted at low-end handsets in emerging markets. But it was the speedy adoption of Android in these areas that hampered efforts. The situation was compounded by the cancellation of the $25 Firefox OS smartphone in 2015, ultimately leading to the nonprofit abandoning its mobile OS plans later that year.

Firefox OS intro video from 2013

Mozilla did have some success in the connected devices market, thanks to Firefox’s inclusion in Panasonic’s 4K TV, but the company's other offerings failed to attract much interest.

Mozilla believes that the move doesn't spell the end of its internet of things endeavors. “IoT is clearly an emerging technology space,” the company says, “but it's still early.”

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/68021-firefox-os-now-completely-dead-mozilla-lays-off.html

 

[Badonk4]

Sigh.

 

[Uncle Al]

RIP for a pretty good product ....

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Oh well, the writing's on the wall for Mozilla. Pretty soon they won't exist at at all except in the memories of those who used their products. It's all the staff they put out on the street that I feel sorry for.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

A shame....it was just too little too late really. If they had come in right when iOS and Android were starting up they could have had a great chance.

 

[Fabio Turati]

Oh well, the writing's on the wall for Mozilla. Pretty soon they won't exist at at all except in the memories of those who used their products. It's all the staff they put out on the street that I feel sorry for.

Not so quick! The browser is still a solid source of income, thanks to the home page that directs users to a search engine. True, Firefox's market share is low, and it gets even lower every month; but Firefox has some die-hard users that won't disappear anytime soon. Mozilla's future might be grey, but certainly not black!

 

[mrjgriffin]

I hope mozilla doesn't die. im using firefox nightly right now over google chrome. I like firefox better

 

[Ascaris]

Firefox is open source. Mozilla itself (as it is currently constituted) may fall, but the code is always there. Maybe there would be a resurgence in interest once the *****s who think it needs to be another Chrome disappear from the picture.

 

[merikafyeah]

Firefox is open source. Mozilla itself (as it is currently constituted) may fall, but the code is always there. Maybe there would be a resurgence in interest once the *****s who think it needs to be another Chrome disappear from the picture.

There's already a long term fork of Firefox that follows the very mindset of "not being Chrome". It's called Pale Moon. Latest version is currently 27.0.3, but I would suggest any potential newcomers to the browser wait for the upcoming 27.1 version which brings back Jetpack/SDK addons along with a bunch of other improvements.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Not so quick! The browser is still a solid source of income, thanks to the home page that directs users to a search engine. True, Firefox's market share is low, and it gets even lower every month; but Firefox has some die-hard users that won't disappear anytime soon. Mozilla's future might be grey, but certainly not black!

You're optimistic and that a good trait to have. If Mozilla keeps hemorrhaging money like they say they do them no matter how beloved FF has become to a lot, it alone won't save them. Personally I don't want to see them fold but what will be, will be.

 

[Ascaris]

Now, the last sentence of everyone's favorite soliloquy from Shakespeare's Macbeth:

"It is a tale told by an *****, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Ya know, TS, if you censor something that isn't actually profane, you're in effect putting words into someone's mouth; no one can tell from the citation that I didn't use whatever word that comes to mind when they see it censored. Shame on you.

I know about PM, but it's a small project that seems to be at its limit just undoing all of the poor decisions Mozilla has been making. That's a good thing, certainly, but it's a long way off from being able to keep up with new standards and plug security holes and other general development, not to mention maintaining the entire addon library. Perhaps if the main branch of FF died, PM would become the de facto new main branch, and there'd be more resources for PM. I don't know if MoonChild (PM dev) is prepared for that, though.

If not, someone else would almost certainly step up, just as the VeraCrypt devs did after TrueCrypt was abandoned.

 

[Yynxs]

I said something about Google doing its usual and stealing everything they developed with volunteers and paying nothing but change to them for the Chrome browser.

I wonder how many desirable Firefox OS features will now move into Android phone spy gear.

In all probability it was the latest statements about controllable privacy that led to enough pressure to shut this down. No matter what, Google cannot let controllable privacy enter the phone market. None of the 'big boys' want it as a choice.