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The Future of FireFox and Mozilla

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Mr Happy

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Just to layout the reason and set the background for the new document Mozilla released yesterday.
In short FireFox was started a number of years ago as an alternative to Internet Explorer. IE used to have over 90% of the worlds Internet Users and had monopoly as it was installed by default on all computers. Over the years FireFox grew and ate away at IE's lead but now Google Chrome has over taken FireFox as the main challenger to IE and FireFox have continued to see it's numbers fall.

This presents a number of challenges. The main one is the reason FireFox was started is no longer needed as Google Chrome has taken it's job as the main challenger to IE.

So Mozilla needs a new reason to exist. A new global aim or challenge to make the web more open and that it believes is ecosystems.

Taking Apple first they have an app store where they sell apps for their iOS and iCloud that syncs it all together locking people in.
Google have a market place for their Android and a chrome app store for their Chrome OS along with Google accounts and the growing G+ Profiles. Amazon also have an app store and their Kindle with it's apps, music, books and ecommerce empire. Microsoft have an app store, live accounts, Office, Windows 7 OS which runs on desktops and its mobile phones.
Basically they all have ecosystems which try to lock users in making them sign in on multiple devices and buy products from their marketplace which is against an open source web.

This is a world FireFox can't survive.

The roadmap released yesterday outlines what they plan to do which is release a Windows Mobile version of FireFox, release a new OS and launch a new app store where you can find extensions and apps.

I don't know if this is too late though. Everyone thinks Microsoft left it late with Windows 7 Phones and it's now struggling to build up it's app store and take users from iOS and Android. I don't see how Mozilla can at this late stage. Mozilla get's most of it's money from Google by having it as the default search so it's relying on Google for money. As FireFox declines they won't have as much money to develop an OS unlike Google, Apple and Microsoft who have billions to invest in their OS's and ecosystems.


The other problem is they don't have their own phones to install their OS by default. Android is default on most phones. iOS on Apple Phones and Macs, Amazons modified version of Android on it's Kindle fire and Windows 7 on Window Phones and desktops. Mozilla doesn't have any phone to put it's products on by default so if people don't install it then it won't gain users and as a result developers won't develop apps or addons for it.



Any thoughts? What would you do if you were Mozilla to stop FireFox numbers decreasing and what would you do long term to challenge Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon?
 
22 comments
My thoughts are: If Microsoft wanted to race with Firefox, they would beat them down to the core, but they didn't want to waste money on that.
Second, the moment Google entered the game, Firefox lost it.
There's a difference between payed programmer, and those who are not being payed for their work. We are living in capitalism. Money makes the world spinning. Very sad.
However, why focusing so much on mobile phones? There are netbooks too, who are screaming for free OS, capable more than just surfing the internet, and market is huge. Beating up Microsoft again? So, make OS for netbooks first, then for mobile devices, and let users easily synchronize their data between mobile and netbook.
 
dexter786 said:
it is true firefox is going bad day by day :(
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KINGTHE_ALI said:
firefix is very slowww they need to do sumthng ab8 this....
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Ya but how do they fix the problem? Even if they make it faster how do they get more people to install it on mobile phones where the future is?
cvrle77 said:
However, why focusing so much on mobile phones? There are netbooks too, who are screaming for free OS, capable more than just surfing the internet, and market is huge. Beating up Microsoft again? So, make OS for netbooks first, then for mobile devices, and let users easily synchronize their data between mobile and netbook.
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The number of mobile phones passed desktops sold over the holidays for the first time and continues to grow faster. It's the future and where the average person spends more time. They are also far more likely to buy apps for a mobile than a computer => more money.
 
Yes, I am aware of that fact, but, I would never start from the top. Start a bit lower, make cash where there is no strong competition, make a fertile ground in market for future expansion. Reinvest cash, when you are strong enough, to attack that market.

You don't cut tree from the top. Google and Apple made billions, before investing in mobile market.
 
probably will sign up with Motorola or SonyEricson some mobile brands which are internationally reputated and start dealing with em to have their app store powered by Mozilla
 
immu said:
probably will sign up with Motorola or SonyEricson some mobile brands which are internationally reputated and start dealing with em to have their app store powered by Mozilla
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All recent SonyEricson phones (Xperia) use Android OS. And Motorola is owned by Google <_<
 
Firefox need to focus seriously on start-up speed. have to make it lite. it gets too heavy when their is a lot of bookmark saved.
 
immu said:
probably will sign up with Motorola or SonyEricson some mobile brands which are internationally reputated and start dealing with em to have their app store powered by Mozilla
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Motorola are owned by Google though (awaiting approval due soon) so a partnership is highly unlikely. As for Sony Ericsson that deal ended and Sony bought out the shareholding of Ericsson recently and if anything they will try and use their Vita OS that's on their PlayStation and PSP instead and link their products to creating their own ecosystem instead. That's of course if they decide to get rid of Android which is currently very successful for them.
 
then no other choice left for them
they need to get an FFStore get apps like Chrome Browser have or Deal with FB & Twitter to add few lines like "works best with FireFox" and hyperlink em. Not sure that gona happen tough
Tough times for em only Innovative step shall save em
 
In response to the original post, I think theyre too late. Creating an OS with apps/extentions now will be a hard strategy to make work. Google, Apple and Microsoft own that market.

They should focus on making firefox faster and more stable on both desktops, netbooks, mobiles, tablets. If they can make firefox faster and more reliable than Safari, IE and Chrome people will use it as an alternative - just like we once did before the days of Chrome.

They should also look into growing in apps and extentions, maybe offer something back to developers.
 
developers well, that gona not work coz, at the end of the day its used by noobs (80% around the world)
so they need to provide something back to users and developers too
like if an extention is installed 1k times developers should be rewarded and users who set FF as their homepage shall get an elite FF user rank something like that
 
SJshah said:
In response to the original post, I think theyre too late. Creating an OS with apps/extentions now will be a hard strategy to make work. Google, Apple and Microsoft own that market.

They should focus on making firefox faster and more stable on both desktops, netbooks, mobiles, tablets. If they can make firefox faster and more reliable than Safari, IE and Chrome people will use it as an alternative - just like we once did before the days of Chrome.

They should also look into growing in apps and extentions, maybe offer something back to developers.
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I do think this is their only true option also but if you think they used to just develop a browser for a desktop and now they also need a browser for iOS, Android and Windows Phone and remember they have tablets as well so that's an extra browser if iOS Tablets, Android Tablets, and Window Tablets and that's before you even consider RIM and Blackberry. It's way more work maintaining all those browsers on different platforms and isn't really possible.
 
Not surprised to be honest.. Saw this coming. It's to late to get involved in the iOS niche since it's dominated by the 3 main companies. In my opinion they should just fight for what they already have. If they further develop FireFox to compete with Chrome and other browsers. They just need to find something unique, something that will let you customize your browser how you want by changing colors, re-arranging buttons, etc. Let the creativity flow.
 
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