Mozilla has announced that it will stop development of its Firefox OS after its version 2.6 has been released. This announcement is in agreement with the company’s earlier announcement sometime in 2015 that it would quit trying to develop a smartphone OS that can compete with the Android and iOS.
Mozilla’s George Rotor also released a statement in which he wrote: “The circumstances of multiple established operating systems and app ecosystems meant that we were playing catch-up, and the conditions were not there for Mozilla to win on commercial smartphones.”
In other words, Mozilla has quit because it has no hopes of winning on this turf.
The company’s goal for Firefox OS was to give emerging markets this OS in entry level devices. However, Android’s rapid growth into the same customer segment made achieving that goal difficult or just impossible. In its statement to TechCrunch, Mozilla also added that it wasn’t able to “offer the best user experience possible” on Firefox smartphones.
With regards to what the company intends to do next, George Rotor’s statement also revealed that the company chose to stop working on its OS in order to focus its energies into creating solutions within the Internet of Things space (IoT). With regards to this Rotor said “And let’s remember why we’re doing this: we’re entering this exciting, fragmented space to ensure users have choice through interoperable, open solutions and for us to act as their advocates for data privacy and security.”
Although many’ Mozillians’ are upset by this decision, the company seems resolute but has also assured that it will keep accepting submissions for Android, tablet and desktop apps in its Firefox Marketplace right into 2017.
