Now it's official, Firefox OS moves into the „Tier 3“ support category.
Tier-3 platforms have a maintainer or community which attempt to keep the platform working. These platforms may or may not work at any time, and often have little test coverage.
Quote from MDN — Supported build targets
… So this basically means there won't be any extended effort to make Firefox OS more stable, or to make it even more user friendly. Also, there won't be any new advertisements to get a wider user base.
Don't understand me wrong, this should not be a post of any upset Firefox OS addicted. Even if I'm one, I will try to be objective.
The lost of Firefox OS as phone operating system means to loose some diversity. So why should I care about diversity? If everyone just uses Android, doesn't that mean more development work is moving into Android and at the end, every user will benefit from that? Short answer: no.
So why ist the lost of diversity so important to me? Less diversity means less competition. And competition keeps companies to focus on features that are important to users. Let's say Android does not implement the new cool feature, that iOS has. So users will shift to iOS. Let's say this feature has to do something with your car. So if Android implements this feature in their own style, car manufacturers now have to implement two proprietary technologies: Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
If there is more diversity, like with Windows Mobile, Firefox OS and so on, these companies have to talk to each other and try to find a general standard. Because car manufacturers won't implement four+ technologies that basically do the same thing.
So the lost of diversity, at the end, means the lost of improvement / development of standards. And there's no way for „newcomers“ to get into the market (without paying a lot fees to use those proprietary technologies).
One small example, I've a new car with some fancy radio. This radio has a hands-free phone system based on Bluetooth. This was standardized some time ago, so now I can connect my Windows Mobile and my Firefox OS without any problem. This radio also has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support. I simply can't use it, because it's proprietary technology. Android and iOS together have so much market share, that it's not necessary to develop and implement a better standard.
With no competition, companies can basically „do what they want“, because there are no alternatives for users.
Firefox OS failed because it is ideology-first, and technology-first. iOS, and to a lesser extent Android, prioritize human-centered design.
Ideology cannot sell a platform to the mass market. What human-centered problems did Firefox OS solve that iOS and Android didn't? The only differentiators I can think of are openness and a focus on web standards. As a developer, I think those are awesome, and as a fervent believer in a diverse open web, I think those are crucial. As a person looking for technology to integrate into my life, I'm at a loss for a reason why I'd pick up Firefox OS. (Cost is a bad differentiator.)
It isn't enough for a challenger to solve the same problems. Any new contender has to offer a real alternative that meaningfully improves its users' lives in measurable ways.
The question is not: what alternative operating system can I run on my smartphone?
The question is: what comes after smartphones?