Mozilla Decides to Stop Making Firefox OS for Smartphone

The web-browser’s smartphone platform has failed to light up the global market.

Mozilla Firefox OS for smartphones. (Photo Courtesy: Mozilla)

Mozilla’s dream to compete with Android is finally over. The non-profit organisation designed its Firefox OS for smartphones but it never managed to take off with the consumers. So, Mozilla has decided to shut down its smartphone project and focus on building its Internet of Things (IoT) products with the Firefox platform.

Everything is connected around us. This revolution has already started and it will be bigger than previous technology revolutions, including the mobile smartphone revolution. Internet of Things, as many call it today, will fundamentally affect all of us. We will prototype this future starting right now using technologies developed as part of the Firefox OS project to give us a kick-start. We will make space for this exploration by stopping our work to build and ship smartphones through carrier partners.

Ari Jaaksi, Senior Vice-President – <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/12/09/firefox-os-pivot-to-connected-devices/">Connected Devices, Mozilla</a>

Firefox OS was seen as Mozilla’s weapon to combat Google’s Android that rules the roost globally. But Mozilla failed to attract phone brands to make products that run on the Firefox mobile platform limiting itself to names like Intex and Spice Mobile among others.

But, don’t worry. It’s not the end of the road for the operating platform – it will be utilised to create an ecosystem built for connected devices. Looks like Android and iOS have scaled up to a different level and new entrants are facing a hard time trying to match it. Hopefully, we’ll see the Firefox OS in an all new avatar very soon.