Firefox OS is an important part of our mobile strategy, in addition to Firefox for Android and other initiatives. We believe that building an open, independent alternative to proprietary, single-vendor platforms is critical to the future of a healthy mobile ecosystem. And it is core to our mission to promote openness, innovation and opportunity in online life.

As an open source project, we are different from other tech companies and do most of our work and planning in the open, so we want to share a brief update of what we’re planning and what we’ll be experimenting with for the next phase of Firefox OS.

Ignite Initiative

Earlier this year, we shared that we were moving to the next phase of Firefox OS, where we would focus on the core product experience to ensure that it is clean, modern and easy-to-use, and yet powerful through its extensibility, clever design and features that put users in control of their experience.

Our aim is to build the next generation of Firefox OS with a stronger, more unified product experience and developer platform that exemplifies our values by showcasing the best of the Web.

To accomplish this, we are bringing three key ideas together:

User focus: Ensuring that we’re delivering an experience that people love through user-centered design, research and product iteration Web platform: Bringing more of Mozilla and the Open Web to people than just the Web technologies upon which our products are built Community: Rallying and fully empowering our global community of developers, designers, and more to help build the future together

To deliver upon this vision we are immediately moving to a development model where we will drive a single open source core of Firefox OS, with major releases every six months, based upon weekly sprints.

Each major release will strive to deliver significant user and platform value, and will be available directly to anyone who wants to flash an unlocked Android phone or run through B2GDroid (an app that allows you to experience Firefox OS on Android) to get the latest experience, help test new features and to contribute back to the overall project. We will also support our partners (i.e. OEMs and operators) who will build and ship Firefox OS-powered devices based upon these major releases.

Firefox OS 2.5

The next major version of Firefox OS is now scheduled for this November. You can view the draft roadmap and plan here.

Firefox OS 2.5 will be the most customizable, secure, locally relevant and empowering Firefox OS experience yet. In addition to local content, personalization and privacy features, we plan to enable the mobile equivalent of “View Source” (note: we’re still evaluating and designing the final feature set), revamp our security model to expose more of the new mobile Web APIs to developers and enable a Firefox-like extension mechanism to add to the user interface and phone capabilities.

New Product Development

We are also ramping up focused new product development efforts with key partners, building on recent announcements about Firefox OS Smart TVs and Smart Feature Phones, and active explorations into the Internet of Things and other connected device opportunities.

Stay tuned for more.