Mozilla gives up on Firefox OS; lays off team

Seems Mozilla has finally given up on its Firefox operating system said to be aimed at powering 'connected devices'. According to a report in CNET, "The nonprofit organization told employees Thursday that it is eliminating the team tasked with bringing Firefox to connected devices,..."Some 50 employees are said to be affected by the development.

"We have shifted our internal approach to the internet-of-things opportunity to step back from a focus on launching and scaling commercial products to one focused on research and advanced development, dissolving our connected devices initiative and incorporating our internet-of-things explorations into an increased focus on emerging technologies," said the company in a statement to CNET.

The report also claims that Ari Jaaksi senior vice president of the particular section and Bertrand Neveux, director of group's software, too are leaving. The report further says that some of the affected employees are getting new roles at Mozilla.

For those unaware, Firefox OS was initially aimed at emerging markets with low-end devices, but unfortunately failed to see a demand in the market. In December 2015, the company discontinued Firefox OS for smartphones and refocused the project as 'connected devices team' aiming to bring the OS to IOT devices.

"Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the Web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs. However, we weren't able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels," Jaaksi told Tech Crunch in December 2015.

The company in December last year announced that it would soon stop supporting old Windows OS versions. The company, via a blogpost, revealed that Windows XP and Windows Vista will automatically be moved to Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) around March 2017.

Source: Techgig