The nonprofit organization rose to prominence with the success of its Firefox Web browser a decade ago, but it's having trouble achieving the same success with its Firefox operating system for smartphones. According to a Thursday email from new Chief Executive Chris Beard, Mozilla has changed its strategy to a new "Ignite" initiative that emphasizes phones with compelling features, not just with lower price tags. It's also considering letting its operating system run apps written for its top rival, Google's Android.

"We will build phones and connected devices that people want to buy because of the experience, not simply the price," Beard said girl power grl pwr retro iphone case in the email to members of the broader community of people involved in Mozilla's projects, "We have not seen sufficient traction for a $25 phone, and we will not pursue all parts of the program." (For the full text of the email, see below.), The shift in Mozilla's strategy shows just how hard it is for the nonprofit to adapt to the modern era in which smartphones are central to our electronic lives and and the computing industry's attention, At the same time, for Mozilla, its principles of openness are at least as important as sales and market share, While a retooled version of Firefox OS may not power your next smartphone, the organization hopes its operating system may influence the device's capabilities, But if Mozilla wants to spread its gospel to the mobile world, it must adapt..

To be sure, it's hard to make a dent in the massive smartphone market -- which tallied sales of $96 billion and shipments of 310 million phones in the first quarter of 2015, according to market research firm GfK. Mozilla is in good company: Microsoft, Ubuntu, BlackBerry and Nokia also have struggled to compete with Apple's iOS and Google's Android, the two dominant operating systems for smartphones and tablets. Mozilla is in a hard place, said Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis: apps are at the heart of the mobile market today, and Android and iOS dominate that world.

"If you are going to try to play in that world, you need to offer something that is so valuable that people are willing to give up access to the broader ecosystem," he said, "In the mass market, that's basically impossible."Mozilla's plight could affect even those who don't use its software, The group has worked for more than a decade to make the Web more powerful and to give people control over their online lives despite prying governments and money-hungry corporations, Plenty of people would like to see those values in the mobile market even if their phone doesn't sport Mozilla's orange fox icon, but those values just aren't girl power grl pwr retro iphone case in play today..

The Ignite initiative began weeks ago but only had been disclosed to staff in secrecy. Thursday's email shared some details with the broader community of people who contribute to Mozilla's projects. Mozilla launched Firefox OS in 2013 with the goal of breaking open the "walled gardens" that confine iOS and Android users and bringing Internet services to millions of people who today can't afford smartphones. Now Mozilla's Ignite plan includes several technology components. Among them are support for service workers -- a technology Google has championed to bring new power to Web apps -- including the ability to better work offline; an improved way of providing software updates; continued work to expand Firefox OS beyond just phones to other Internet-connected devices; and support for flip phones and other products more familiar to people upgrading from lower-end feature phones.