Mozilla has poured cold water over its Firefox OS mobile ambitions and is moving in the direction of Internet of Things as it believes that IoT is a much greater revolution than smartphones.
Mozilla’s decision of winding up its Firefox OS-powered mobile ambitions isn’t going to leave a huge dent in the mobile OS spectrum, but it does hint at the fact that iOS and Android have established themselves with a strong footing cemented into the ground to the extent that almost no one can uproot them.
Mozilla’s angle? The non-profit Firefox web browser maker believes that Internet of Things has a huge potential and it is a revolution that will leave smartphones, and tablets in the shadow. Mozilla intends to cash-in on this and it is betting its chips on the technologies it has already developed for smartphones and will channel them to the IoT world.
The announcement by Firefox OS maker comes just days after Jolla cut its workforce working on the Sailfish mobile OS. This indirectly means that iOS and Android have more or no competitor left to compete with considering that Windows Phone has a distant 2.2 per cent share and BlackBerry has been relegated to almost 0 per cent share.
“We will explore and prototype new use cases in the world of connected devices as an open source project with a clear focus on the user benefit and experience”, Mozilla said in a post. “We will focus on products and technologies that allow people to access and manage their world of connected devices, helping to ensure people are empowered, safe and independent.”
Firefox OS or Sailfish OS aren’t the only two new mobile OS that have tried to compete with iOS and Android as there are others who have tried taking a shot at the smartphone market. This includes Ubuntu Mobile, Samsung Tizen Baidu Cloud OS, and Alibaba Amos among others, but none have actually been able to make their mark.
Mozilla has given a positive touch to the slow adoption and backed out of segment completely and announcing a turn towards the Internet of Things market.
“We are excited about the challenges and opportunities ahead of us. We believe that the Web can be the right platform for this future of connected devices and we can’t wait to share more with everyone soon,” Mozilla says at the end of the post.
