Fwd: Updates and changes to Firefox OS/Connected Devices

[Michael Kohler]

-------- Weitergeleitete Nachricht --------
Betreff: Updates and changes to Firefox OS/Connected Devices
Datum: Thu, 4 Feb 2016 09:35:05 +0100
Von: George Roter <gro...@mozilla.com>
An: dev-...@lists.mozilla.org
Kopie (CC): John Bernard <jber...@mozilla.com>



Dear Mozillians,


The purpose of this email is to share a follow up to what was announced
by Ari Jaaksi, Mozilla’s SVP of Connected Devices, in early December
<https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/12/09/firefox-os-pivot-to-connected-devices/>--
an intent to pivot from “Firefox OS†to “Connected Devices†and
to a focus on exploring new product innovations in the IoT space.
We’re sharing this on behalf of Ari and the Connected Devices
leadership group.


In particular, there are a few decisions that we want to share along
with what will happen next. We’ll elaborate more below, but let us
start by being very clear and direct about 4 decisions that have been made:


1.

We will end development on Firefox OS for smartphones after the
version 2.6 release.

2.

As of March 29, 2016, Marketplace will no longer accept submissions
for Android, Desktop and Tablet, we will remove all apps that
don’t support Firefox OS. Firefox OS apps will continue to be
accepted into 2017 (we have yet to finalize a date for when we
won’t continue accepting these apps).

3.

The Connected Devices team has been testing out a new product
innovation process with staff, 3 products have passed the
first “gate†and many more are in the pipeline. Having multiple
different product innovations in development will be the approach
moving forward, and we’re hoping to open up the formal process to
non-staff participation in the first half of the year.

4.

The foxfooding program will continue and will focus on these new
product innovations (rather than improving the smartphone
experience). We expect the Sony Z3C foxfooding devices to be useful
in this, but we expect it to take until the end of March to figure
out the specific design of this program.

Obviously, these decisions are substantial. The main reason they are
being made is to ensure we are focusing our energies and resources on
bringing the power of the web to IoT. And let’s remember why we’re
doing this: we're entering this exciting, fragmented space to ensure
users have choice through interoperable, open solutions, and for us to
act as their advocates for data privacy and security.


There are some exciting opportunities for youto shape this next phase
through your participation -- we’ve started to outline some of these
below and will send more details in the days ahead.

Even after reading more below, you may have questions to ask and
thoughts to share. For that reason we’re opening up a conversation
here on Discourse
<https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/firefox-os-connected-devices-announcement/>and
will have open office hours over the coming days
<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Participation#Upcoming_Office_Hours>.
Please reach out.


And now more details...


We will end development on Firefox OS for smartphones after the version
2.6 release

Through the work of hundreds of contributors we made an awesome push and
created an impressive platform in Firefox OS. However, as we announced
in December, the circumstances of multiple established operating systems
and app ecosystems meant that we were playing catch-up, and the
conditions were not there for Mozilla to win on commercial smartphones.
We have decided that in order to succeed in the new area of Connected
Devices we must focus our energy completely on prototyping the future
and exploring how we can make the biggest impact in IoT.


Therefore we are announcing our plan to end-of-life support for
smartphones after the Firefox OS 2.6 release. This means that Firefox OS
for smartphones will no longer have staff involvement beyond May.


We will continue to assess the stack to determine fit with new projects
coming through the innovation process (outlined below). Of course, Boot
to Gecko (b2g) always has been and will continue to be anopen source
operating system <https://github.com/mozilla-b2g>open to contribution.


Let us end this section with a massive and heartfelt thank you to all of
you who poured your hearts into Firefox OS for smartphones. We added
more than 30 WebAPIs and proved the Web is flexible enough to support
products from smartphones to TVs. We learned a tremendous amount about
how to partner with other organizations and develop products with our
values in a hyper-competitive market. And it also stands as a great
starting point to proceed to the next phase of Connected Devices.


Changes to Marketplace

As of March 29, 2016, Marketplace will no longer accept submissions for
Android, Desktop and Tablet, and will remove all apps that don’t
support Firefox OS. We will continue accepting Firefox OS apps into 2017
(we have yet to finalize a date for when we won’t continue accepting
these apps). Apps that currently work on Desktop and Android will no
longer function on those platforms since the Web Runtime (WebRT) will be
removed and will no longer be able to install or launch apps. We will
continue to allow submissions and updates for free Firefox OS phone
apps, and there are millions of existing users that we will continue to
support. For more information about the future of Marketplace visit the
wiki here <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Marketplace>.


Product Innovation Process

For the past month, the Connected Devices team has been testing out a
new product innovation process with staff to identify our 2016 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
(“gates†) in the development cycle. This will be the team’s
approach moving forward.


As of today, we have 3 projects that have passed the first gate
including SmartTV <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox_OS/Smart_TV>, and
about a dozen more projects are prepping for review. You can learn more
about the product innovation process here
<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Product_Innovation_Process>.


We’re hoping to open up this formal innovation process to non-staff
participation in the first half of the year. The tricky part of this is
how to navigate volunteer involvement in the inevitable reality of
projects that don’t pass gates in the development cycle being
wound-down quickly. If you are interested in helping design this kind of
open innovation process for volunteer participation please get in touch.


The foxfooding program will continue and will focus on these new product
innovations

Our push into the Connected Devices space will absolutely necessitate
strong community support for our initiatives to be successful -- and
that means hacking on and testing new product innovations coming through
the pipeline.


That means the foxfooding program will actually expand to engage
community members early and often with new product concepts. We expect
the Sony Z3C foxfooding devices in the existing program to be useful in
this (since they are already packed with various sensors that may be
used in the IoT space). We expect it to take until the end of March to
figure out the specific design of this program.


Start Building the Future right now!

The possibilities, freedom and potential of the connected devices space
make it particularly exciting. We want to empower as many people as
possible to get involved! A full participation program is in the design
phase <https://github.com/mozilla/participation-org/issues/286>and will
be rolled out in the months ahead.


In the meantime, a volunteer-driven and lightweight Innovation Fund is
being initiated by the Mozilla Reps Council. This fund is an experiment
itself for the next 3 months, and will provide a lightweight and
streamlined process to fund small projects that aim to experiment and
prototype innovative ideas in the connected devices space. You can read
more about this here
<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Participation/Reps_Innovation_Fund>.



The entire Connected Devices leadership is overwhelmed with appreciation
for what we’ve built and accomplished working together -- a deep,
heartfelt thank you again. And we’re tremendously excited about what
we will create together in the future.


We’ve put together some information about how you can get involved
with Connected Devices
here.<https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Participation>


Please share all of your questions and concerns with us on Discourse
<https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/t/firefox-os-connected-devices-announcement/>where
we will be regularly responding, and answering questions. You can also
share your questions with John
<https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/jbernard/>, George
<https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/geroter/>, Lucy
<https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/lucyeoh/>or Brian
<https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/kinger/>directly by email.


Onwards,

John Bernard. Director, Collaboration, Connected Devices

George Roter. Head of Core Contributors, Participation

--
George Roter
Head of Core Contributors, Participation

irc: geroter | skype: geroter
Cell - Canada: 416.670.2401
Cell - USA: 650.485.0079
<tel:650%20308%208443>