It's been almost three years since ZTE announced the first smartphone to run Mozilla's Firefox OS. The device was called the 'Open', an appropriate name given the open-source nature of the OS; Mozilla even slammed its iOS and Android rivals for not being open enough last year.
But now, Mozilla is closing the door on its smartphone efforts, announcing an end to development and sales of Firefox OS smartphones at its 'Mozlando' developer conference.
While Mozilla will no longer commit resources to Firefox OS smartphones, this isn't quite the end of the road. Earlier this year, for example, Panasonic unveiled the first - and so far, the only - TV with Firefox OS on board.
However, the loss of the smartphone branch of the OS will certainly have an effect on the platform, and while Mozilla still refers to plans "to enable the ecosystem to grow", that may not be so easy without a significant number of users and devices, and - more significantly - the confidence of software developers.
Source: Neowin
