Smartphone Commercial Transition
Contents
Project Description
After Mozilla’s decision to stop launching Firefox OS smartphones through carriers or in the free market, we need to evaluate and plan the level of support and the services that are still needed for active Firefox OS users, as well as the internal activities that need to be completed to appropriately close out our FxOS project. The aim of this project is to provide a fair and good level of support for existing commercial users in multiple aspects (Marketplace, Content, Push services, Support for users, etc).
Executive Summary Recommendation
Review and analysis has resulted in a recommendation to have a transition period of two years (through Q1 2018) to maintain Firefox OS smartphone environment to support current users. In addition, Mozilla will keep monitoring activity metrics during this time, to have a confident measure of the real user activity in the wild.
Project Status
| Section | Summary | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace & Content | Plan already approved to maintain support to current users | DONE |
| Payments | Agreed to disable Mozilla Payments | DONE |
| Push | Push service will be maintained | ON TARGET |
| Support for emergency fixes | Critical and major security issues will be covered | ON TARGET |
| SUMO | Our team will maintain basic support to Firefox OS users | ON TARGET |
Status Key
| Color | Status | Key |
|---|---|---|
| On Target | The project or deliverable is expected to meet its due date. | |
| Challenged | The project or deliverable is facing an issue that might cause it to miss its due date, but a “get well” plan has been developed to get it back on track. | |
| At Risk or Late | The project or deliverable is blocked or facing an issue that might cause it to miss its due date, and there’s no “get well” plan to get it back on track, or it is already late. | |
| Done | The project or deliverable has been completed. | |
| On Hold | The project or deliverable has been placed on hold. |
Marketplace and Third-Party apps
There are the following topics covered in the Marketplace ramp-down plan:
- FxOS 1.x user support: Support for 1.x users will be secured until June 2017. This means that after that date fixes to potential critical bugs that are only affecting to 1.x users will not be a priority. Otherwise FxOS 1.x users would continue having access to the marketplace.
- FxOS 2.x user support: Support for 2.x users will stop in Q1 2018, when the potential decommission of the marketplace will be evaluated.
- Operator Shelves and Operator Dashboard: Operator Shelf will continue enabled while marketplace is active (Q1 2018).
- App submission: We can distinguish different cases here:
- App submission for Tarako devices, and apps in China will be stopped in Q1 2016.
- General app submission will continue up to June 2017.
- Paid apps: Paid apps will be disabled in Q1 2016, as Mozilla Payments will be disabled then.
- Maintenance of third-party apps: Mozilla will continue supporting content partners with special focus on the most popular apps in the marketplace.
Mozilla Payments
Mozilla Payments in Marketplace were disabled in Q1 2016. Paid App developers were notified and paid apps were removed from Marketplace.
Push Notification Service
Firefox OS users will keep using Push service. There are no plans to decommission this service and target is to maintain at least until Q1 2018.
Support for any emergency fixes
No regular OTA updates are expected. But although highly unlikely, potential updates due to either major security vulnerabilities or serious device build issues are still possible. In the unlikely event of this was happening Mozilla would work to generate the required patches, execute QA and provide support to OEMs to make sure that the relevant fixes will come to users.
Help Desk/SUMO
Existing Firefox OS SUMO materials (such as articles) will be maintained, although it is not expected new content to be created. Basic support to Firefox OS users (mainly in forums answering questions) will be maintained.
Program Timeline
| Milestone | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Disable Moz Payments | End of Q1 2016 | DONE |
| Disable Paid Apps | End of Q1 2016 | DONE |
| Disable app submission for Tarako device | End of Q1 2016 | DONE |
| Disable app submission in China | End of Q1 2016 | DONE |
| Disable general app submission | June 2017 | ON TARGET |
| Keep fixing critical issues for 1.x users in Marketplace | Up to June 2017 | ON TARGET |
| Keep support for 2.x users in Marketplace | Up to Q1 2018 | ON TARGET |
| Maintenance of Marketplace and its features | Up to Q1 2018 | ON TARGET |
