Mozilla has stopped development on Firefox OS for connected devices. This leaves some 50 engineers without a job, as the company now shifts focus solely on the internet of things. This is the second time that Firefox OS has been dropped after efforts to get it on to smartphones failed to gain traction.
Firefox has been struggling to gain relevance since its heyday back in the 90s and early 2000s. Mozilla’s technology has been behind innovations in today’s web browsers, although it’s rarely used today. The non-profit attempted to break into the mobile market by developing an operating system for smartphones with Firefox OS.
The company announced that it would be trying to pivot to Firefox OS smart devices early last year. Panasonic adopted the operating system for its 4K tvs, but that was about as far as it got.
Going forward, Mozilla will be looking into other technologies for the internet of things. One known project is Project Vaani, which is a voice interface technology; which is similar to what Amazon has been working on. Mozilla also has a team working on an artificial intelligence.
[Source: CNET]
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