The browser wars of the 1990s and 2000s saw the dominant player – Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – engaged in a David and Goliath battle against Firefox, an open source browser that was dismantled from working at Netscape.
A decade later another software war began: Microsoft was again involved with Windows Mobile, but the Goliath in this case was Symbian led by Nokia. You should be familiar with the two Davids who tackled it: Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android project.
However, today’s story is about Firefox OS, which was developed by Mozilla, the same community that has been working on the Firefox browser since the late 1990s. Mozilla wanted to bring its principles of openness, security and privacy to the smartphone market, and some smartphone makers were receptive to a new alternative to Android.
Geeksphone Peak
The first phones came out in 2013, Geeksphone Keon and Peak. These highly affordable devices ($ 91 and $ 149) were aimed at developers as they run an as-yet-unfinished version of the operating system. They were powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets (S1 for Keon and S4 for Peak) with only 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage.
2013 saw some of the major players release their Firefox OS phones. The Alcatel One Touch Fire (built by TCL) and ZTE Open came out in July. Like the Keon, they ran on the S1 chipset with even less RAM (256MB) and had tiny 3.5 ” 320 x 480px screens (hey, it was good enough for the original iPhone in 2007).
LG Fireweb ended the year. Although it had a larger 4 “display (320 x 480px) and 512MB of RAM, it was still an entry-level device. Part of the plan, Firefox OS wanted to be accessible to everyone and that ruled out premium pricing. Or maybe everyone. those who aren’t too busy with Android were already trying to get Windows Phone working and didn’t have time for another project.
alcatel One Touch Fire • ZTE Open • LG Fireweb
Before we move on, let’s talk about Firefox OS. As you can see from the name, it used Firefox as its web browser, rather than something based on WebKit (like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome).
But it was more than that: iOS and Android have their own UI toolkits that have been used to build apps. This made the apps less portable and required learning new tools if you want to build an app.
Mozilla aimed for openness and accessibility, so it decided that apps would be just like web apps, written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. To start with those all you need is a computer capable of running a text editor and a web browser – pretty much any computer sold in the past couple of decades would. So, Firefox wasn’t just the default browser, it was also the app’s runtime.
Like Android, Firefox OS used the Linux kernel. Indeed, Mozilla has managed to get involved by adopting code developed for Android phones. This includes things like Android Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), which smoothed out the differences between the various platforms: Most FF OS phones ran on Snapdragon, but not all (e.g. a Geeksphone used an Intel Atom Z chip, remember those?). You can read our 2014 Firefox OS review if you want to learn more about the platform: what it felt used rather than the insides.
Alcatel (TCL) and ZTE remained the main hardware partners for Firefox OS with devices like the Fire S and Open L, which were on the verge of being mid-range. Huawei took a leap in 2014 with the Huawei Y300II.
alcatel Fire S • ZTE Open L • Huawei Y300II
There were small devices like the Alcatel Pixi 3 (3.5) with its 3.5 “display and even some tablets, for example the Alcatel Fire 7 (its 7” display had a resolution of 540 x 960px, which was difficult on the eyes).
alcatel Pixi 3 (3.5) Firefox • alcatel Fire 7
Firefox OS also reached Japan when LG had another try: the LG Fx0 for FDDI was designed by Tokujin Yoshioka. It was a curious looking device with transparent outer panels. And it was the most high-tech FF phone ever, with a fairly fast Snapdragon 400 chipset, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a 4.7 “IPS LCD with 720p resolution. It sold for JPY 50,000 ($ 415 / € 340), making it the most expensive Firefox device of the time.
These 2015 releases also marked the end of the road for Firefox OS. Mozilla officially declared time of death in December 2015. None of the phones have been a big seller despite their affordable prices (or perhaps because of their very low specs).
Before we tackled the topic of life after death, we wanted to quickly mention some weird Firefox OS-based devices. A Kickstarter project sought to create a Chromecast competitor dubbed Matchstick TV. This ended in failure due to the difficulties of managing the DRM (which is vital for streaming).
Matchstick TV, a failed Chromecast competitor based on Firefox OS
VIA made a couple of single-board computers (think Raspberry Pi) that have been called Rock and Paper. Panasonic also released a smart TV (CX700) based on the operating system.
The Panasonic CX700 was a smart TV with Firefox OS
The Firefox browser was originally known as Phoenix, named after the mythical firebird that rose from the ashes of its predecessor (symbolic since it was seen as rising from the ashes of Netscape Navigator). This was later changed (due to a trademark dispute with BIOS manufacturer Phoenix Technologies) to Firebird (but that name also clashed with another company). Eventually the reborn browser was renamed Firefox and a red panda became its symbol.
Like its browser of the same name, Firefox OS would be reborn from the ashes. After Mozilla retired, a community was formed to continue developing “B2G OS” (Boot 2 Gecko, Gecko is Firefox’s layout engine). This later served as the basis of KaiOS.
ZTE is heavily involved in the project, continuing its work on Open devices. KaiOS should also be familiar to you from Nokia devices of the past: the Nokia 8110 4G, 6300 4G and 2720 V Flip.
Nokia 8110 4G • Nokia 6300 4G • Nokia 2720 V Flip
Another familiar face is back with the likes of alcatel 3088, alcatel Go Flip 3 and Go Flip V.
alcatel 3088 • alcatel Go Flip 3 • alcatel Go Flip V
Interestingly, KaiOS has created a sub-genre of rugged phones, such as Nokia 800 Tough, Cat B35, Energizer E282SC, and Plum Ram 9.
Nokia 800 Tough • Cat B35 • Energizer E282SC • Plum Ram 9
Indian carrier Jio has also used KaiOS for the original JioPhone and JioPhone 2, although it’s moving away from that in favor of the Android-based Pragati OS.
The JioPhone 2
Millions of KaiOS phones have been sold – as of February 2018 that number was 30 million. Unfortunately, KaiOS doesn’t espouse the open nature of Firefox OS and some parts are closed source. KaiOS has never surpassed Firefox OS’s preference for low-end devices, again, this is the whole point of the platform: powering phones that are too cheap even for Android Go.
Say what you want about it, but KaiOS is more successful than Firefox OS has ever been. Did Mozilla give up early? Or just couldn’t find the right hardware partners? It doesn’t matter now, Android has won and it is the Preferred open source phone OS.
Firefox OS wasn’t the only web-based smartphone operating system, nor was it the first. We’ve already looked back at Palm’s webOS, whose interface was ahead of its time, but its time as a smartphone operating system was short. After a short time at HP, it is now the operating system that powers LG’s smart TVs (LG never made a smart TV with Firefox OS, unlike Panasonic).
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