I've used a smartphone since 2009 when I bought an iPhone 3GS. Although I have changed to an Android device since, I honestly do not know how I managed without one, regardless of the platform. To date there have been three major smartphone platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. The BlackBerry from Research In Motion might count as a fourth platform, but has been poorly adopted and its market share continues to decline, which means that their future is not yet clear.
But either way, there is probably another mobile platform within about a year. Is Firefox OS, Mozilla. The platform is based on (you guessed it) the Firefox browser. The Mozilla site claims that it will offer "release private mobile platforms" after providing a user experience based on universal standards, instead of requiring users to use apps developed specifically for a single platform.
It looks promising at first glance, right? The problem is that we have seen another company trying to do exactly the same, and did not go well. Re-read that quote-"release private mobile platforms." Essentially, what we propose is to have smartphones Mozilla Firefox browser loaded on power, and since then use that browser as the background of any activity carried out on the device.
Sound familiar? If you know some emerging technologies, you should sound theme. In June 2011, the first batch of devices with the operating system Google Chrome OS came out. The operating system is essentially nothing more than a simplified version of the Chrome browser, optimized for very specific hardware. You can not run any software written for Windows or Mac OS X. All "applications" are not much more than links to existing sites or services. In other words, a Chrome OS device runs the Chrome browser and nothing else. So far, the forecast for the Chrome OS platform has been pretty grim. In mid-June, an analysis of web usage noted that Chrome OS has a market share of only 0.0119%, which is even lower than the share of browser included with the PlayStation 3 from Sony (one 0.0428 %). However, Mac OS X and Windows have a share of about 12.5% and 86.4%, respectively. And Chrome OS statistics have not changed much since then.
I admit I may not be completely fair to compare the use of traditional PC operating systems with mobile devices. However, at least at first glance, I do not think Firefox OS go anywhere. An industry analyst has opined that Firefox OS is "an idealistic experiment", and I agree, at least for now. Go ahead, Mozilla: Prove us wrong.
You can contact Luke via: luke.jensen1981@gmail.com
