Firefox OS is growing and the future looks bright. The question is what does the future really hold and how has this year been so far. Has wrong decisions been taking?. Highlights of this article include : Firefox OS 2.5, H5OS, African launches with MTN and Orange, Web VR, IoT and Smart TV,s.

H5OS: Well the biggest news about Firefox OS now is that 100 dollars has been put into an offshoot of the operating system which is H5OS you must have read all about it but what are the implications of this on Firefox OS. We all know Firefox OS is open source but from the way things are going it doesn’t seem the guys in charge of H5OS are very interested promoting an open source OS.

Regardless though, this has made people start thinking about the subject and are now worried that Mozilla’s projects could be leached off of by companies that just add a few changes and then make their derivative products closed source. Is the MPL strong enough to prevent that?

From my understanding of the MPL, it is strong enough that the parts from the B2G project will still be FOSS. If the company wishes to add proprietary parts that use the B2G project, they can. Any modifications to MPL’s code are still under the MPL so it will be possible to request the source for it. Now that path is cleared at least for now H5OS might be a big competitor but lets wait and see what happens.

A little bit of the future is in the past

Yes the future is connected to the past and in this part I am referring to Firefox OS in Africa, now here is the past : Firefox OS entered Africa with MTN with the Fire E in South Africa and to other African countries through Orange. [Read all articles on the Orange Klif launch in Africa.] The big question is how did it go with Orange its going very well we’ve been to Ivory Coast and Firefox OS is doing well, apart from that most of our new readers in terms of app and game reviews are coming from those countries. In South Africa its not been good I think Mozilla should not have gone with MTN since they are not putting in much effort.

Now the future is here more countries will be added to the covered markets through the Orange deal. Tigo and Airtel have both showed concern and we expecting them to start something soon. Apart from that feature phones running Firefox OS shuld arrive in 2016. Here is a list of devices to expect later this year:

Web VR [Virtual Reality]

Well virtual reality is a big innovation and a big deal. With MozVR we are actually approaching VR running on Firefox OS. Currently we have covered some great news with Mozilla releasing a special version Firefox Browser it wont be so hard getting VR to Firefox OS. There has been development, check out this YouTube video to see what the future holds. Mozilla is also doing more by supporting WEBVR position sensor Api natively.

IoT/Smart TV

The Internet of Things is a field of tech Mozilla keeps stressing on. In terms of IoT the Web Board is a gateway. With the web board you can even build an IoT washing Machine. We all know Mozilla is looking into smart watches we also saw the runcible at MWC 2015.

With Smart TV’s Mozilla and Panasonic in the coming future will continue to push Firefox OS for TV’s. On Mozilla’s side more functionality will be added to the os and for Panasonic more televisions with the operating system. Get a glimpse of the Future with this YouTube video.

We saved the best for last

Firefox OS 2.5

Firefox OS 2.5 is based on the Ignite Project and Spark tools. Spark is a set tools, customizations, and features built on top of the next generation of Firefox OS. This version of the operating system will be ready in November. Here are the highlights of the new version.

Voice Commands: Yes with Firefox OS 2.5 users will be able to use voice commands just like using Siri and Google Now. How will this be implemented? Mozilla has been working on a personal digital Assistant called “Vaani”. Currently its almost ready since voice commands wil be making its way to the OS get ready for a digital assistant maybe with another name.

RTL: Right To Left text support is coming to Firefox OS 2.5. This will allow some languages like Arabic to be added to the operating system which will enable the operating system to be launched in more countries.

Customization: Users of Firefox OS will now be allowed to view source code of apps change the code use it and share with friends using the Hackaplace.

More Privacy: Users will now be allowed to browse the web on Firefox OS without a trace with the support of private browsing.

FIREFOX OS CENTRAL HAS MOVED FROM THIS SITE

For full report on Firefox OS 2.5 read Here