Mozilla, a company famous for its Firefox web browser, said recently that it will gracefully bow out of its attempts to break into the smartphone market with its Firefox OS-based smartphones.
The company first announced the Firefox OS for mobile devices in 2012 and followed in 2013 with the release of the first Firefox OS-based smartphones in partnership Alcatel, ZTE and LG. At Mobile World Congress in February 2014, Mozilla touted its Firefox OS tools and devices in a bid to attract developers and operators.
As of December 2014, Mozilla said its Firefox OS was available on 14 smartphones offered by 14 operators in 28 countries, but it seems the devices never caught on in the mass market.
“Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the Web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs,” the company said in a statement. “However, we weren’t able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels.”
The move follows Mozilla’s attempts to expand Firefox OS across the globe, continuing expansion efforts to make its smartphones and operating system available in Africa as recently as six months ago in May. The mobile operating system was also made available in Argentina through Telefonica Movistar in March.
At this year’s Mobile World Congress in March, Mozilla announced it was collaborating with mobile provider Orange to bring the Firefox OS to 13 new markets, including Egypt, Senegal, Tunisia, Cameroon, Botswana, Madagascar, Mali, The Ivory Coast, Jordan, Niger, Kenya, Mauritius and Vanuatu. The company also said it was working with Telefonica and Verizon to create a new line of Firefox OS smartphones for launch in 2016.
It appears, though, that Mozilla isn’t completely exiting the mobile space. The company said it plans to share “more on our work and new experiments across connected devices soon.”
Filed Under: Devices
