Mozilla has announced it has halted development of the Firefox OS for smartphones and will no longer sell devices running the software.
The web-centric iOS and Android alternative was revealed in 2013 with a focus on developing markets and low-end devices.
Mozilla says despite the shuttering of the Firefox OS, its experiments with connected devices would continue.
Related: LG FxO review
The announcement, made during a Mozilla developer conference in Orlando has since been confirmed in a statement.
Ari Jaaksi, Mozilla’s SVP of Connected Devices, wrote (via TechCrunch): “We are proud of the benefits Firefox OS added to the Web platform and will continue to experiment with the user experience across connected devices. We will build everything we do as a genuine open source project, focused on user experience first and build tools to enable the ecosystem to grow.
“Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs.
“We’ll share more on our work and new experiments across connected devices soon.”
On a busy day for the company, Mozilla also announced the Focus ad-blocker for Apple’s mobile Safari browser.
Focus by Firefox is a content blocker for Safari that improves the privacy and performance of your mobile browsing experience by blocking analytics, social and advertising trackers,” explains Mozilla.
“Focus by Firefox is free, open source and backed by Mozilla, a trusted brand committed to user choice and transparency.”
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
