Rest in Peace Firefox OS. You lived a short, uneventful and for the most part unloved existence in certain parts of the world, including here in Australia. Today, your parent company, Mozilla Corporation has placed the final nail to seal your coffined fate.
Ok so that was a little dramatic, but news has come out that Mozilla Corporation, owners of the famous Firefox web browser, is shutting down its “connected devices” group which has housed the ill-fated and sadly much unloved Firefox OS.
Now, this news won’t come as a shock to many, with the company originally ceasing any updates for Firefox OS and stopping the production of devices in about September 2016 citing at the time poor uptake by carriers along with poor sales of devices at partnering retail companies.
There is though one small issue that may still affect consumers but also a brand partner for Firefox OS – Panasonic. Panasonic has made and developed Firefox OS for their own brand of smart, internet connected TVs which are available from a couple of retailers here in Australia.
It is unclear if Panasonic will continue to develop Firefox OS for its brand of smart TVs, and we will be looking to find out what this means for both Panasonic and consumers who may have brought a Panasonic branded smart TV and want to know if updates and support will continue
Sad news but not entirely unexpected. Mozilla’s whole strategy around Firefox OS was wrong and confusing to say the least. I would have thought that a better strategy would have been to create a slim and fast alternative to Android and pitch it to the owners of older devices. They could then have charged a nominal annual fee for support and updates. For Mozilla, this would have been a money maker. And for consumers like that has older devices, it would have been an opportunity for us to extend the useful life of our devices. A win-win situation. Sadly it… Read more »