Firefox OS: worth a damn or just an academic exercise?

Mozilla last week revealed that developer versions of mobile phones using its new open source operating system, Firefox OS, would go on sale in February.

The company is working on the phones with telco Telefonica and smartphone producer/seller GeeksPhone, both of which are based in Madrid, Spain.

It’s not the first time the new OS has been on display - there’s already a browser-based simulator and an Android app that can download and run HTML5 applications - but it is the first time members of the public will be able to get their hands on an actual ‘Firefox phone’.

The release of a physical phone is important for developers: arstechnica notes that while apps on the OS are “built entirely in HTML, CSS and JavaScript”, Mozilla also offers additional APIs to access a phone’s hardware. If your app uses these APIs, you’ll obviously need a physical device to test it.

What’s more open than open?

Mozilla presents Firefox OS - previously known as ‘Boot to Gecko’ (B2G) - as a more ‘open’ alternative to iOS and Android. Although Google labels Android as open-source, Mozilla’s Director of Research, Andreas Gal, denies this is the case.

Speaking to Know Your Mobile last year, Gal said, “Google makes all of the technological decisions behind closed doors and pushes them outwards. You may or may not get a look at the source after the device comes out. But it’s certainly not open. And in this sense it’s no different from Apple’s platform, except that maybe sometimes you get access to the source.”

This is because, he says, Google and Apple have built their respective operating systems in order to turn a profit, and satisfy shareholders.

Mozilla, on the other hand, is a non-profit organisation. And it’s emphasising the relative openness of its mobile OS.

Gal told Know Your Mobile that the OS is “a completely open stack that is 100% free. We have a publicly visible repository and all the development happens in the open. We use completely open standards and there’s no propriety software or technology involved.”

Who cares?

What Mozilla has put forward in Firefox OS is interesting, but many are sceptical of the impact the OS will have on an already-crowded marketplace.

Consumer loyalty is already divided between iOS and Android - and, to a lesser extent, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. Strategy Analytics figures put global smartphone market share of Android and iOS at 70.1% and 22% respectively. Comscore says that in the US, Android accounts for 53.7% of the smartphone market, while iOS takes up 35%.

Expecting consumers to learn about yet another OS - and understand how it differs from existing ones that, in most respects, seem identical - is beyond ambitious. It seems outright unlikely.

Mozilla’s spiel so far seems targeted at app developers, stressing the openness of the platform and ease of app development. So perhaps the company is banking on developers to get behind the OS, and eventually drawing the wider consumer community in.

But comments from analyst firm Ovum make this seem unlikely.

Nick Dillon, senior analyst at the firm, said that while “Ovum believes that web technologies are the future for mobile development … we do not think that the web-only Firefox OS will facilitate a dramatic change in the approach to mobile application development”.

“There is already good support for HTML5 web technologies on the existing major smartphone platforms, meaning that there is little need for another platform in order to drive their adoption forward,” Dillon said.

Instead, Dillon expects the move to web technologies to be more gradual than the one Mozilla has proposed with its Firefox OS, with consumers using a mixture of web apps and native mobile apps.

Dillon described the OS as “an interesting academic exercise”.

If this is all the OS is - an academic exercise intended to push developers towards a different style of app development - then it might meet that goal.

But Mozilla is touting the platform’s customisation options for OEMs and operators, and spruiking the freedom the devices will give consumers - markers that Mozilla is intent on sending its OS into battle and competing with the existing entrenched mobile operating systems.

On the other hand, extra competition can engender innovation in the incumbents. The mere presence of Firefox OS in the marketplace may push Apple and Google to do more with their own operating systems, therefore achieving Mozilla’s goal of promoting “openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web”.

To paraphrase Van Halen: only time will tell if Firefox OS stands the test of time.

Image courtesy of Mozilla