We recently announced a pivot for Firefox OS to Connected Devices and I’d like to share an update on the new product innovations we’re working on in the IoT space.
We’ve been working on a Product Innovation Process to identify our new IoT product programs. This process pushes us to think about early-stage ideas as if they were tech-startup projects where teams advocating for them are required to demonstrate a clear consumer value proposition at all points or “gates” in the development cycle: validation (whether there is a problem to solve), productization (whether there is a market fit), and scaling.
As of today, we have a good set of projects that have passed the first gate, including more SmartTV work (building on the success of our work with Panasonic in this space) and new opportunities such as FoxLink (a personal Web of Things) and Vaani. We’re working to open up this innovation process to non-staff participation soon.
Of course, Boot to Gecko (b2g) has been and will continue to be an open source operating system open to contribution.
We’re entering this exciting, fragmented IoT space to ensure users have choice through interoperable, open solutions, and for us to act as their advocates for data privacy and security. This is what we at Mozilla do best and it is indeed this intersection of opportunities and challenges that makes it the right time for Mozilla to focus on this new exciting phase of the Internet!