Mozilla doesn’t want to be a laggard in the race to control the smart television. So it’s just partnered with Panasonic, which will use Firefox OS to run its smart televisions.
The televisions will run the browser-based operating system just like a smartphone would, taking advantage of Mozilla’s HTML5-based operating system and running on the company’s open source WebAPIs.
Mozilla described the new partnership in a press release:
With the launch of this new open platform, Panasonic’s next generation smart TVs will gain full compatibility with Web technologies and HTML5 standards used for cloud services and various future networked devices. By using new Mozilla-pioneered WebAPIs for hardware control and operation, Panasonic’s next generation smart TVs will also be capable of monitoring and operating devices inside and outside of the home, such as smart home appliances.
Connected TVs are nothing new in the consumer gadget market, but none of them have really caught on yet. Their interfaces tend to be wonky and difficult to use, particularly where inputting information is concerned. Google TV was supposed to be one of the big things in the connected TV market, but has proven to be mostly a failure at this point. The long-awaited Apple TV is still just a glimmer in Apple’s eye, if that.
Credit: readwrite
