Mozilla to kill off Firefox OS

Mozilla has announced that it will soon end support for Firefox OS on smartphones.

The OS was launched three years ago, but has failed to attract smartphone makers, which in turn has affected its market appeal.

"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," said Mozilla developer George Roter in a blog post.

From May, there will be no more staff involvement with Firefox OS for smartphones. However, before that occurs, the team will release Firefox OS 2.6.

Mozilla will instead switch its focus to the Internet of Things. The connected devices team has reportedly finished first stage of development on three projects, including a Smart TV. What else it has in store is as-yet-unknown, but we hope to hear more in the near future.