Mozilla to roll out Firefox OS platform

[Edward]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mozill ... 2012-07-02

Can the smartphone world support a fifth (or sixth?) OS?

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[James]

Indeed. And now there are rumors that Amazon is preparing a smart phone.

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[Edward]

If this keeps up, the market will become too saturated.

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[Antony]

We, endusers, love competition and choices.

There was/is Chrome OS, which does not get much attention these days. If memory serves correctly, Mozilla did not give Chrome OS many (if any) positive comments.

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[Antony]

Techradar posted an interesting article: Mozilla Firefox OS: 10 things you need to know. I will summarise it here:
If all go well, we can expect the first Firefox OS phone to hit the market in January 2013 which targets “budget end of the market,” and it is a HTML 5 web-based browser which sits on top of Android kernals (just like Chrome OS.

I must say that I am puzzled by “aimed at the budget end of the market” part. As a general speaking, open-source extremists demand the best of the best! They demand the fastest, the latest, the most powerful and all things the best. Asking those people to switch their top-end mobile to a budget phone? I failed to see the logic.

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[Edward]

I don't understand that either.

When the phones hit the US market (since they're going after the budget-conscious consumer), I would expect the likes of TracFone/Straight Talk/Net 10 to have such a phone first, since they cater to the same clientele. As to the manufacturer of the phone, that would be an open question.

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[James]

As I mentioned in another thread, this is the only way Mozilla is going to save itself. Our world is far more mobile than it was even a year ago and it's becoming more so all the time. If they don't get into this mobile game and get in fast, they're history. Tablets and smart phones is where the action is increasing dramatically. They need to be on these devices and they need their own OS.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1

[Edward]

Actually, I think they're already too late. I would say the same for Windows Phone and Blackberry. The ones that got in early, Apple and Google, will be the dominant platforms.

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[James]

I've a hunch you're right and I hate this since my wife and I both have Windows phones and we love them. I was listening to Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley the other day on Windows Weekly podcast and they also expressed the belief that Windows Phone was either going to make it in the very first version of Windows 8 or it too would be cut before it bleeds too much more wasted money. Firefox is very late to the party. It seems to be an Apple/Google faceoff. Rumor has it that Amazon is thinking about a smart phone as well. That could prove far more interesting than Mozilla.

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[Mandrake]

I certainly see the dominance of Android and iOS continuing. RIM seems to be a hopeless cause, with Blackberry 10 not appearing until 2013 now. Microsoft hasn't really had much lucky pushing Windows Phone 7/7.5 as of yet, I agree with what James said. If they don't succeed with Windows 8 it may well be too late for Microsoft.

Mozilla needs to try and get into this space. Whether with their own OS, or just a great version of Firefox on various mobile platforms. Firefox, as it stands now, on Android is slow and clunky IMO. I greatly prefer using Google Chrome on Android.

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[Antony]

But a Firefox OS built on top of Android (if I read TechRadar article correct) to compete against Android? What would be the excuse to dump Android phone for a "low budget" phone just because it runs Firefox OS on top of Android?
Many Firefox die hard fans and many open-source extremists vow to use open and standards-support products. Apple is clearly not their favourite company, but iPhone does support most web standards as well as email protocols. Google, being their least hatred company, has Android that is open-source and without a doubt pretty good support on standards.

Speaking about supporting "standards", Mozilla has been selective, a recent example is web video codec.

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[Edward]

I greatly prefer using Google Chrome on Android.

Google Chrome for Android requires ICS or above.

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[Antony]

Here's another article with strong believe that Firefox OS is better than Android OS.
The main points are similar to another article I linked in previous post: cheap and web-based HTML 5 which sits on top of Android kernals.

Personally, I still don't see the budget level phone would make a big impact. In my opinion, those who demand the open-source everything (possible) usually demand the best of the best and the latest of the latest, at all cost.
It is well known that Google is one of the very few well loved companies by those open-source groups, however, some still "hate" Google. Now, Mozilla Firefox OS is virtually a package on top of Google's Android. It still has Google's blood by the end of the day. Further, for those who can not live without the latest version, latest patches of whatsoever, Firefox OS update is ought to be behind Google's Android if there's some update in Android kernal.

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[Mandrake]

I greatly prefer using Google Chrome on Android.

Google Chrome for Android requires ICS or above.

Indeed it does. All recent Android phones/tablets should have ICS by now. If the manufacturers haven't provided an update yet then that is simply unacceptable IMHO. That's part of the reason I chose the Galaxy Nexus, so that I wasn't dependent on HTC/Samsung/Motorola etc for updates.

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