firefox os
(re)Positioning paper
the origin
why did we create firefox os?
tale of 2 incumbents

Two companies were creating two monolithic silos trying to tie the users to them.
Once inside them, is really difficult to move away.
many tries to beat them failed before








... and many of them had huge Operator and/or OEM support
If you try to beat an incumbent from the scratch, you need to provide something significally better
THE SOLUTION
FOSTER AN ALTERNATIVE THAT ALREADy EXISTED
THE WEB
other INITIATIVES
- DESIGN BY COMMITTEE
- CLOSED
- NO CONTENT
- HUGE OWNERSHIP COST
THE WEB
- STANDARD DRIVEN
- OPEN
- ALL WEB CONTENT
- SHARED COST
WHY THE WEB CAN SUCCEED WHERE OTHERS FAILED?
PROBLEM
TWO COMPANIES ARE CONTROLLING MOBILE WEB, GUESS WHICH ONES?

THAT's WHY FIREFOX OS EXISTS
A TACTICAL MOVEMENT TO BREAK MOBILE WEB DUOPOLY

FIREFOX OS
THE GOOD PARTS
PUES ESO, TODO LO qUE HEMOS LOGRADO
- Tiempos
- Mercados
- Devices
- Y poner lo que otros no han logrado
FIREFOX OS
THE BAD PARTS
- Restricted: Devs need to register, pay, use specific tools/OS...
- Rules: App stores create arbitrary rules, e.g. No flash, no porn...
- Revenue Share: BizModel and payment methods dictacted by the Stores
- Unbalanced: No alternative stores are allowed
- Universal: Any one can create a Web and Publish it
- Open: Devs are free to decide what to include or which technologies to use
- BizModel: Any model is possible and devs are free to choose the payment method
- Balanced: Multiple Browsers with balanced penetration, users can chose browser to use
THE WEB
APP STORE MODEL
vs.
THE WEB ECOSYSTEM SHOULD BE THE WAY TO COMMODITIZE APP STORE MODELS:
"IF THE APPS ARE ALL WEB BASED HAVING AN APPSTORE IS NOT AN ADVANTAGE ANYMORE"
- Universal: Any one can create a Web and Publish it
- Open: Devs are free to decide what to include or which technologies to use
- BizModel: Any model is possible and devs are free to choose the payment method
- Balanced: Multiple Browsers with balanced penetration, users can chose browser to use
Devs can create web sites that can be installed but without access to many APIs
Payment solution is FFOS exclusive and not attractive for developers
Only 1 App Store is allowed
No restrictions on what can be or cannot be published
IS FIREFOX OS MEETING THIS TARGET?
IN THE RUSH TO HIT THE MARKET, WE FORGOT THAT THE TARGET WAS NOT FIREFOX OS TO SUCCEED...
... BUT THE WEB TO DO IT
Title Text
- Bullet One
- Bullet Two
- Bullet Three
CLOSED APP MODELS
THE CLOSED APP MODEL IN DETAIL
- CLOSED: Devs need to register, pay, use specific tools/OS...
- CONSTRAINED: App stores create arbitrary rules, e.g. No flash, no porn...
- RESTRICTED REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES: BizModel and payment methods dictacted by the Stores
- EXCLUSIVE: No alternative stores are allowed
CLOSED aPP MODELS ARE NOT AN END BUT JUST MEANS TO LOCK USERS TO A SPECIFIC SILO
"IT'S EXTREMELY EASY TO MOVE INSIDE THE SILO AND EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO DO IT OUTSIDE"
Your digital life is portable within the vertical solution
COMMODITIZING CLOSED APP MODELS
WHAT IF WE MAKE ALL THE APPS UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE?
"All the Apps I am using are available everywhere so I don't care about which platform/mobile device I am using"
IF WE MAKE THIS HAPPEN, THE APP STORES WILL JUST BECOME A COMMODITY: THERE IS NO DIFFERENTIAL FACTOR IN HAVING AN APP STORE
THE WEB AS THE WAY TO COMMODITIZE APP STORES
- OPEN: Anyone can publish and there are no mandatory tools/technologies
- NO CONSTRAINS: No rules to publish a website, is your website and you decide about content and technologies
- UNRESTRICTED REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES: Dev choses payment mechanisms and business model
- UNIVERSAL: The web site can be accessed via any browser and discovered via multiple search engines
THE WEB ALLOWS DEVS TO CREATE AND PUBLISH APPS UNIVERSALLY DISCOVERABLE AND ACCESIBLE
"Any service/app you are accessing via your browser can be also used in a different device/browser with zero friction: Gmail, Facebook, Twitter..."
IF ALL YOUR DIGITAL LIFE IS WEB BASED, ALL YOUR DIGITAL LIFE IS PORTABLE
FIREFOX OS IS NOT THE WEB
HOW IS FIREFOX OS FAILING TO MEET THE WEB PROMISES
- OPEN? NO, only a limited set of APIs are available
- NO CONSTRAINS? OK!
- UNRESTRICTED REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES? NO, Limited options for developer and focused on marketplace only
- UNIVERSAL? NO, there is just one marketplace and creating an alternative one is not enabled
AS OF TODAY, FIREFOX OS IS FOSTERING ANOTHER SILO BUT BASED ON WEB TECHNOLOGIES
"Using Web Technologies is irrelevant unless it brings to users the advantages of the Web"
IN THE RUSH TO hit the market, TOUGH DECISIONS WERE MADE THAT MADE FFOS TO DIVERGE FROM THE WEB: PACK APPs, RESTRICT APIs, ONLY 1 MARKETPLACE, PAYMENTS...
FIREFOX OS REBORN
ThREE MAIN TARGETS
- BE OPEN: WEB CONTENT SHOULD JUST WORK WITH ZERO EFFORT BY DEVS AND A WIDE RANGE OF APIS SHOULD BE AVAILABE
- BE UNIVERSAL: APP DISCOVERY BASED ON WEB MODEL AND NOT IN THE APPSTORE ONE
- EASE ANY BIZ MODEL: ALLOW DEVS TO MONETIZE THEIR EASILY
BE OPEN
FirefoxOS Track
- Expand APIs to Hosted Apps
- Web Compatibility
- FFOS Apps move to Hosted (don't cheat)
Dev Track:
Cacheator, 1 web, 1 web app,
Copy of deck
By Daniel Coloma
Copy of deck
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