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A comment on Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on commercial products. Parent comment

Re:Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on comm... by snomad on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @09:44AM (#24132007)
Even Microsoft - with countless more resources and motivation - failed to make traction in mobile. Blackberry was swept off the stage in the blink of an eye.

Firefox OS was abandoned pretty quick as I remember, 2 years tops?

I would not single that out as a failing.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mozilla lays off 250 employees while it refocuses on comm... by josteink on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @05:16PM (#24137085)
> Even Microsoft - with countless more resources and motivation - failed to make traction in mobile.

Microsoft made a new OS where they needed developers to target their platform. Too few did, and the platform failed.

Mozilla tried to bypass this chicken-and-the-egg problem by being able to leverage PWAs which “everyone” is making anyway these days. It wasn’t a too crazy bet that it might have worked.

In a similar vein the Pinephone is trying something similar these days: not asking developers to target it, but instead leverage existing app eco-systems (Linux and web).

I don't expect a runaway mainstream success here, but I do wish them luck.

[ Parent | on HN ]