http://gdg-dublin.appspot.com/devfest/index.html

1. Landscape and
Development Introduction
GDG Dublin 2013 - Gianfranco P.
@gianpaj - Nov 2nd 2013

2. What is this talk about?
● What’s Firefox OS
● Why should I care
● How do I try building an app
● Resources

3. Firefox OS, a Browser or a Phone?
Neither, it’s an open-source mobile OS
based on Linux and powered by
Mozilla’s Gecko*
*Layout engine used by Firefox browser, Thunderbird, etc

4. Why?
● Supply something better to next 2 billion
coming online
● Replacing feature phones
● Smaller stack for developers

5. Cool, so how does it look?
1.3 Lock Screen
1.1 Home Screen
1.2 App Grid

6. tm
Marketplace (aka App Store )
marketplace.mozilla.com

7. Ok but, can I make a living?
● TL;DR -> soon
● Developers receive 70% of the pre-VAT and
fee amount
○ eg. from a 0.89€ app (pre VAT 0.74€) you get 0.59€
● Paid apps, freemium apps, and in-app payments
● No signup developers fee
● Ability to charge the user directly to their mobile phone
account

8. Where can I sell today?
●
●
●
●
●
Brazil
Colombia
Poland
Spain
Venezuela

9. How did it get here?
● First demoded in Feb 2012 at the Mobile
World Congress in Barcelona
● April 2013 GeeksPhone Keon (dev preview)
● July 2013 First commercial based phone
ZTE Open
● Nov 2013 GeeksPhone Peak+

10. Why now?
● Emerging economies.
● Lower entry to Dev
● Telefónica is doing a big push (Spanish broadband and
telecommunications provider in Europe, Latin America, North America and Asia)
● More phones are being launched
○ LG
○ ZTE
○ Geekphone

11. Core
Technologies

12. Where are we now?
● 1.1.0 released
● 1.2.0 feature complete in Sept - fixing bugs
○ Code freeze Dec 9th
● 1.3.0 feature complete in Dec 9th
○ Code freeze March 3rd
The current plan is to continue with FxOS
releases every 12 weeks

13. Ok but what the real deal?
● 1.1
○ Push notifications! (iOS and Android since 2009)
○ MMS support (iOS and Android since 2009)
● 1.2
○
○
○
○
Bluetooth contacts sharing
Email notifications
Email support for audio & video attachments
Music player status on homescreen

14. Ok but what the real deal?
● 1.3
○ POP3 support
○ Access to music controls in notifications tray and
when screen is locked
○ Add flash capability to camera
○ Add WebRTC support to B2G
○ NFC Pairing, Payments and API
○ Reading from NFC tags

15. Works with Android!

16. But WebAPI is not ready? False!
arewemobileyet.com

17. Skills required?
read the docs :)
Can you write Web apps? Then you’re sorted.

18. github.com/robnyman/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App

19. small plug
soundtravel.co

20. Summary
● Firefox OS, if successful, will change the way we use
the Web.
● We are used to visit websites but Firefox OS will bring
an era where we will be using Web apps more than
Websites. Ubuntu for Phones will also support Firefox
OS to help bring in this change.

21. Resources
● Dev
○
○
○
○
github.com/robnyman/Firefox-OS-Boilerplate-App
groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mozilla.dev.webapps
leanpub.com/quickguidefirefoxosdevelopment
shafiul.github.io/slides/kickstart_fxos.html
● General Info
○
○
○
hacks.mozilla.org/category/firefox-os
reddit.com/r/FireFoxOS/
people.mozilla.org/~bking/presentations/oylg2013/firefoxos.html

22. Thanks
Link to slides: goo.gl/y3aVsD
@gianpaj