EkaLore has written about possible strategies Dynamic India could pursue to attain global excellence in key global technology markets. The Smartphone market space is of particular interest because of India's unique cultural and linguistic environment. This release looks at the background and the strategic choices facing Dynamic India in these markets.
The previous post in the series looked at the heartache that Microsoft and Google experienced developing mobile OS and hardware. There are many more stories of challenge detailed in today's post. These include efforts by Intel, Microsoft (again), Amazon, Mozilla, and more.
Canonical Ubuntu (Intel)
Canonical is the software enterprise behind the key Linux distribution Ubuntu. Ubuntu Linux emerged from the Debian Linux ecosystem of developers and customers. Started in 2007 Canonical saw revenue at USD$30M with a tiny profit in 2009. Following the unsuccessful cooperation with Intel on the Intel Mobile Internet Device platform, the Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device operating system environment project was halted in 2009. This was one of Intel's failed attempts to enter the mobile smartphone market using Intel Atom CPUs. During 2011 development of a smartphone and devices version of Ubuntu was initiated. The operating system was to be Ubuntu Touch a variant of the mainstream Ubuntu desktop environments. In 2013 Canonical attempted to crowdfund a hardware project for USD$32M (achieving only USD$12M) to construct a smartphone to be called Ubuntu Edge. A unique feature for the Ubuntu Edge would have been the ability to start up either Ubuntu Touch or an Android operating system. In 2017 Canonical ceased supporting Ubuntu Touch, and the source base was transferred to a German non-profit called UBPorts and continues there.
The Ubuntu Touch operating system is able to use Ubuntu applications such as Libre/OpenOffice and easily port Ubuntu Desktop applications (such as those found in the Ubuntu distribution methods). Embedded advertising and a closed app-ecosystem were not seen as components of the Ubuntu Touch business models (the current releases of Ubuntu Touch have an AppStore). Hardware manufacturers could load Ubuntu Touch for smartphones and tablets.
Of particular interest is that the UBPorts community refers to having more than 8500 developers working with Ubuntu Touch in 2023. Even after moving from one of the most mature Linux environments and more than 12 years of work Ubuntu Touch has only a vanishingly small market
presence.
Amazon Fire
EkaLore has previously written about Amazon's failed invasion of the smartphone space with the Amazon Fire Phone. Starting in 2010 with an announced product in 2014 Amazon attempted to build hardware based on a Qualcomm chipset, a customized FIreOS (derived from Android), and a business eco-system suited to buying from Amazon and serviced by AT&T. The product was discontinued in 2015 with a financial write-down of USD$170M by Amazon. The larger amount of R&D and product development costs already expensed or otherwise treated by Amazon is not known though likely a much large amount as custom hardware development and customer OS development was performed.
For an effort of over 5 years to create a product received poorly by the markets the Amazon Fire Phone is a learning experience that hardware products and software must offer a clearly perceivable advantage to attract customers in even an immature market.
CyanogenMod
In 2015 after the failure of Windows Mobile Microsoft invested a small amount in a community-based open-source fork of Android. The Cyanogen Mod was financed by venture capital and had a following of up to 50M (or more) users on multiple hardware versions. After some success introducing Microsoft apps and tools onto the Cyanogen Mod environment, the momentum was gradually lost. Further development of CyanogenMod is now done as LineageOS.
Mozilla Firefox OS for Mobile
Mozilla created an operating system to drive smartphones, tablets, embedded entertainment devices, and other devices. The Firefox OS was initially released in 2012. The development of Firefox OS used an Android kernel and hardware abstraction layer. This enabled Firefox OS to run on multiple manufacturers' processors and different form factors. Notably, Firefox OS was demonstrated on Raspberry Pi hardware (by Nokia!) in 2012. For the Indian market, Reliance JIO was a partner, as was the launch product from Intex and Spice (FX models) at RUP 1999 (USD$33) on hardware built by Spreadtrum. A wide range of hardware partners include premier telecom and networking enterprises in many markets: Alcatel, Huawei, KDDI, LG, TCL, and ZTE with ports (some just for testing) on HTC, Motorola, Google, Samsung, and Sony. Panasonic picked Firefox OS for their Smart TVs.
Firefox OS for phones was stopped at the end of 2015. The Firefox OS project was discontinued in January 2017.
The failure to gain acceptance of the web-browser centric smartphone experience and a unique open ecosystem caused Firefox OS to fail as a smartphone operating system. As Mozilla drove this as a "community project" (likely with substantial spend by partners and suppliers) it is unknown how large the project or spend cumulatively consumed. Clearly even a widely accessible hardware and software ecosystem leveraging all open standards and an open app eco-system as a commercial failure. Providing an extremely accessible price point feature phone with paths to smartphones and beyond the architecture was proven to be capable in economic and pragmatic packages. And the project still failed.
The next post will continue the stories of large companies that failed in creating a successful mobile OS.
You can read this and other posts about Dynamic India at www.ekalore.com/india-business
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