Firefox OS

2018: Firefox Marketplace closing

Firefox Marketplace — app store for mobile Firefox of OS — will stop work on March 30, 2018. The Mozilla company placed the corresponding declaration on the homepage of shop. It means that users of smartphones under control of Firefox of OS will not be able to set and update applications from an official source any more. Profile media apprehended it as final death of Firefox of OS.

The problem will concern users of 18 models of smartphones of production of Alcatel, LG, ZTE, Huawei and other vendors. In particular, it is about the ZTE Open and ZTE Open C smartphones. They went on sale in July, 2013 and in May, 2014 respectively. There is in a line also an unusual model — the smartphone in the transparent Fx0 body from the Japanese operator of KDDI. Also without applications there will be an InFocus New Tab F1 tablet released in the spring of 2014 and delivered with Firefox of OS.

2016

Development of Firefox of OS is stopped

On September 27, 2016 Mozilla announced a stop of development of Firefox of OS - developing a product, the company did not receive the expected results from this promotion.

In July, 2016 Mozilla stopped commercial development of the OS Firefox operating system (the code name B2G — Boot To Gecko).

OS, (2015) Firefox logo

According to Arie Dzhaksi (Ari Jaaksi), the senior vice president of Mozilla for Internet devices, and David Bryant, the vice president for development of the platform, the decision on the termination of development of Firefox of OS was made at the end of 2015. After that the command gradually winded down the work. The strategy of release of smartphones on the OS Firefox platform with participation of commercial partners did not bring Mozilla of the expected results^[1].

Having made this decision, Mozilla was going to develop Firefox of OS for "smart" TVs (this OS is used by Panasonic), but then the company management drew a conclusion - other organizations should be engaged in this work, and later they refused this direction.

Is not going to save the code of the Mozilla operating system. The engine of the Mozilla Gecko browser is the basis for Firefox of OS. In the course of work on the operating system the code was imposed on Gecko, at the same time Gecko developed within this project. Now this code interferes with development of Gecko and the Firefox browser at the heart of which the Gecko engine also operates.

About plans of Mozilla - to develop own OS for smartphones, it became known in July, 2011, and in a year the Telefonica operator showed the first prototype of the smartphone on this platform.

The first two smartphones on the OS Firefox platform left in 2013. They were created by the Spanish company Geeksphone, but in two years it left business.

At the end of 2015 the line of smartphones on the OS Firefox platform was represented by 18 models from Alcatel, LG, ZTE, Huawei and other partners of Mozilla. The cost of devices began with $33 and to several hundred dollars, depending on the producer and characteristics.

In May, 2015 Mozilla announced the management failure of the idea of release of cheap devices.

In December, 2015 development knew of continuation of the begun Mozilla of case alternative to Linux platform for smartphones Acadine Technologies startup from Hong Kong.

Acadine created and develops fork the OS Firefox project. In July, 2015 the startup attracted in the project $100 million from Tsinghua Unigroup. Tsinghua Unigroup works under control of the government of China and National Tsing Hua University in Beijing.

Firefox of OS 2.6 is the last release

On February 10, 2016 it became known of the termination of development and development of the free mobile platform Mozilla using technologies of the Firefox web browser — Firefox^[2].

Firefox OS (2014)

George Roter, the head of an initiative of Mozilla Participation Lab, published official details about the termination of development and development of the free mobile platform Mozilla using technologies of the Firefox web browser —^[3].

In December, 2015 Mozilla announced project closure of Firefox of OS. It is connected with the fact that in the mobile market there was a set of operating systems with which to compete (for gaining a significant share in comparison with commercial smartphones) it was not provided possible for Mozilla. Therefore enthusiasts and Open Source-проекта developers decided to concentrate the efforts on other sphere of activity (Internet of Things (IoT)) and to try to achieve success in a field of attached devices (Connected Devices).

Taking into account it is decided to stop development of Firefox of OS for smartphones after version 2.6 which should appear in May, 2016, stop adopting annexes for Android, Desktop and Tablet in Marketplace since March 29, 2016. All applications which do not have support of Firefox of OS will be deleted. Annexes for Firefox of OS will still be adopted (till 2017 - on 2/10/2016 exact date is not defined).

OS/Boot to Gecko (B2G) of an operating time created within Firefox will be used for projects of the Mozilla Connected Devices command, the source code B2G will remain open for any applications and development by third-party enthusiasts.

2015

The OS Firefox project is closed

On December 9, 2015 Mozilla announced a stop of the OS Firefox project — complete cessation of development of the mobile operating system, with reference to TechCrunch mass media^[4] reported^[4].

The statement of the company was heard at a developers conference in Orlando (USA).

We will save the OS Firefox code to continue experiments on the built-in solutions. Firefox of OS was offered by flexibility of web technologies and was suitable for devices of different type — from cheap smartphones to HDTVs. Nevertheless, we could not offer the market better experience of the user interaction. Ari Jaaksi, the senior vice president of the Connected Devices direction in Mozilla

With an output of this mobile platform to the Mozilla market was going to receive a market share of smartphones, offering to developing countries of the device which residents of these countries are able to afford.

By Firefox of OS it is created on Linux kernel. Application development is conducted in HTML5 language. According to IDC, in the II quarter 2015 the share of platforms on Linux kernel in the world market of smartphones did not exceed 0.4% (Android, created on Linux, did not enter these data).

For December, 2015 the line of devices on the OS Firefox platform includes 18 models produced by Alcatel, LG, ZTE, Huawei and other partners of Mozilla. The cost of devices is from $33 to several honeycomb dollars. In November, 2014 in the Russian market one of smartphones — Alcatel OneTouch Fire E appeared. It was offered by MegaFon operator on 4990 rub. For December, 2015 this model on sale is absent. Beeline showed willingness - to sell similar phones.

Having replaced strategy in May, 2015, the management of Mozilla recognized failure with the idea of release of supercheap devices on the OS Firefox platform and decided to focus on their functionality. The CEO of Mozilla Chris Beard in the open letter noted enlightenment of the company - consumers are concerned more by experience of the user interaction which the device, but not its cost is capable to present.

Last release of the version of OS 2.6.0 of October 30, 2015.

The list of available applications for Firefox of OS is expanded

On February 19, 2015 the rollApp company announced working on devices under control of Firefox of OS of the version of OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

Adding of an opportunity to work with applications, virtulizirovanny rollApp, from the OS Firefox phones – a natural step on the way of strategy implementation of the company which ultimate goal to make any existing application available on any new device regardless of for what platform it is the application was initially created.

Browser window screenshot with the list of applications for Firefox of OS, 2014

Users of rollApp can work with a large number of popular programs on any modern notebooks and desktops via the browser, on Chromebook, iPad, Kindle Fire and other tablets running Android. Since February 19, 2015 - on the OS Firefox smartphones. Though actually applications are started is deleted in a cloud on the rollApp servers (in fact, rollApp provides service of a hosting of these applications), for end users they look as locally installed programs working directly on their devices.

2013

Mozilla provided Firefox of OS

The Mozilla corporation provided in February, 2013 the first commercial assembly of the operating system for the mobile devices Firefox OS. The ZTE company in the middle of 2013 will put the smartphone with it on the market in Colombia, Spain and Venezuela. OS is expected the markets where the prevalence of smartphones is still small and where a decisive factor upon purchase — the price. In the USA devices with Firefox of OS can appear in 2014.

The analyst of Gartner Carolina Milanesi doubts that Firefox of OS will achieve something, "as consumers need not the next OS, but more perfect devices", besides that according to her, Firefox of OS advances other projects which are throwing down a challenge to Android and iOS by a step such as Tizen and Ubuntu.^[5]

Jack Gold from J. Gold Associates considers, Firefox of OS have no chances. However, according to him, as to many consumers all the same what OS in their smartphone, operators, not persons interested to depend on Android, can become interested in Firefox of OS as an alternative. It is confirmed also by the operators who are present now at Mobile World Congress. Vodafone Group, for example, hopes that increase in number of mobile platforms will allow to balance relationship with their suppliers as between them competitive struggle for sales channels will amplify.

Firefox OS 1.1

To owners of the first two smartphones running the OS Firefox operating system - Keon and Peak - became available first updating of the operating system - OS 1.1 Firefox. It is reported at an official forum of a startup Geeksphone which let out them.

Work on the interface, some applications and functions is carried out to Firefox of OS 1.1. So, the application for work with e-mail received a set of improvements, many errors are corrected. The application of the calendar is also improved. At connection of earphones users had an opportunity to set lower volume, besides, users can answer incoming calls at the connected earphones in which there is no microphone - for communication the microphone which is built in directly the smartphone is used.

Also labels of applications were changed - in the new version they became less. Scrolling of labels is improved. The users who executed updating to OS 1.1 Firefox note the reduced load time of the smartphone is essential (by 3 times), Engadget writes.

Notes