Yet another smartphone OS...

Not sure if this has been posted already, but...

Firefox OS

Article said:

Mozilla reckons the OS will be lighter and faster, but also says it will be more open than the open source OS,  Android. Google has shown some hesitation in releasing source code for recent versions of Android.

Except, it also looks like Android with some iOS influences...

The interesting bit is that all the apps are to be written in HTML5. When I first heard about the OS, I thought "Yeah, right...people definitely want to develop for yet another platform. This will work, sure." But if it's all in HTML5, then maybe the barrier for development is actually lower, and that devs will get the benefit of some code/skill reuse.

Also, Mozilla doesn't really need to promote its own products like Google, which may mean less restrictions for carriers and smartphone manufacturers. They would be able to morph it to their needs.

Maybe the OS might gain some popularity?

Competing Android heads on? I think that's very brave and bold.

@MasterPie: It's definitely got some strong metro influence there too. I wonder how long it will take for all the the people who were hating on Microsoft about a platform specific HTML5 API to start drooling over this platform specific HTML5 API.

"Mozilla reckons the OS will be lighter and faster"

So not like firefox then?

I also wonder from a business/marketing/cognitive psychology perspective...

in the current model, you have 3 major data points (WP, iPhone, Android) with certain groups of people of varying sizes attracted to each point. Now, when you add a fourth point that is similar to one of the existing points (doesn't matter how technically different, but conceptually), how does that effect the model now? Would there be a split effect, as in the existing groups going to Android split slightly between it and FFOS, and would this split weaken that side of the model and strengthen the iPhone/WP side? Or would it increase attraction to that side altogether?

(in case you're wondering, I'm imagining 3-4 n-dimensional equidistant points in space)

Like, maybe this could actually be good for WP because it casts some uncertainty and instability on the FFOS/Android side.

There's one another "new" platform MeeGo from company named Jolla (ex-Nokia developers).

Jolla is going to use Mer based MeeGo. They are going to publish two MeeGo-phones this year.

http://twitter.com/JollaMobile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolla

http://androidistica.blogspot.fi/2012/07/jolla-ltd-and-dphone-sign-product-sales.html

Yet another is Tizen

http://tizencommunity.org/

I find all these new platforms interesting. I definitely would like to have a new N900 kind of phone. By far the best phone I have used so far.

• WebOS
• Tizen
• Jolla
• FireFox OS

Didn't Palm try this with WebOS already? The latter is open sourced now so why not just use it as a base? Is it poorly written? Bad end-user experience? Poor marketing? Not inverted here? HTML5 not cut out to build an OS around?

1 hour ago, MasterPie wrote

*snip*

Also, Mozilla doesn't really need to promote its own products like Google, which may mean less restrictions for carriers and smartphone manufacturers.

*snip*

It's funny that you should say that since the carriers themselves are responsible for most of the restrictions placed on the end-user.

25 minutes ago, cbae wrote

• WebOS
• Tizen
• Jolla
• FireFox OS

 

There was a rumor somewhere that Google would retire Android in favor of Chrome OS on smartphones to better own the experience.

I would like to see an open source, C#/Mono based mobile OS.

1 minute ago, Bass wrote

I would like to see an open source, C#/Mono based mobile OS.

Didn't Xamarin pretty much do that already with XobotOS? If my only Android device wasn't such an old POS, I'd probably try installing this on it.

Firefox OS Desktop builds are now available (Linux, Windows, Mac)

Mozilla publishes first Firefox OS nightly builds

I really don't see what Mozilla gets out of this. They will not make a dent in a market dominated by cheap Android phones.

@spivonious: These days it seems like there's always room to push the bar lower.

@spivonious: my bet is "relevance": they were the only major browser vendor out there without a smartphone for which theirs was the default and only choice. Which isn't the reason why the others are making smartphones, but then everybody seems to be fighting a different war...

I won't hold my breath for the glorious fates of the Firefox OS: unless they offer something that simply blows the competitors away, they'll have to face the same difficulties that WP7 faced (late to the party, no apps) except that it's now a lot later in the game and, of course, Mozilla doesn't have the kind of cash Microsoft has.

@Blue Ink:True, Firefox has been losing marketshare to Chrome for a while now. But from the screenshots posted, it seems like yet another iPhone ripoff, which Google has already made available for free with a large selection of devices to choose from and a well-stocked app store. If this Firefox OS ever gets to market, it will die a quick death.

20 hours ago, Bass wrote

I would like to see an open source, C#/Mono based mobile OS.

I would like to see a smartphone OS UI design that does not look anything like iPhone/Android. We have WP (and maybe Palm Pre?) and that's it.