Cross-browser Gaia apps

Problem

Top 3 Problems you face

We didn't win yet

Firefox OS was started because we believe it's important to break the iOS/Android duopoly on end-user smartphones and tablets, using the power of the web. Even as we add new goals to the todo-list for Connected Devices, our initial goal should still drive at least part of the Connected Devices team's activity.

End-users lack high-quality web apps

Users of non-B2G mobile devices have no access to good web apps for contacts, email, music, etc., and are forced to use platform-specific native apps.

Web app developers have few good examples to follow

Few developers know how to write a good offline-first web app, and few good examples are available. This leads to people building more native apps, which is a self-enforcing vicious circle.

Solution

Top 3 Solutions to your Problems

Make Gaia apps work in non-B2G browsers

We take our best Gaia apps (think of email, contacts, music, camera, gallery), and make them work on other platforms.

Add data sync to replace DeviceStorage

Several Gaia apps (Camera, Gallery, Music) rely on the presence of an SD-Card. We can add sync to Dropbox/GoogleDrive/ownCloud to these apps, so they become usable without DeviceStorage.

Add telephony backend

Basically, 'Penn Station', see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.fxos/3vmoUnfMQIs

Unique Value Proposition

Single, clear, compelling message that states why you are different and worth buying

Web apps are cross-platform

Web apps are better than native apps because they don't lock the developer into a specific platform, and allow users to switch devices without worrying about which apps they can continue to use.

Unfair Advantage

Can't be easily copied or bought

We have great apps ready to port

Our engineers know the code of the Gaia apps well. This puts us in a unique position to launch these apps outside the B2G platform.

Customer Segments

Target customers

Users of smartphones, tablets, and other non-desktop devices

Whether you use a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook or a smart TV, and whether it runs iOS, Android, Chrome, Firefox, Windows, or BlackBerry, you will love Mozilla's new mobile apps suite!

Key Metrics

Activity that drives retention/revenue

More people using Gaia apps

The audience for our Gaia apps will be much bigger if we make them work on more platforms than just B2G.

Channels

Path to customers

The web

People can find the Gaia apps by entering a URL in their browser.

Cost Structure

Customer acquisition costs, distribution costs, hosting...

Publicity

We could advertise the URL of each Gaia app through PR, Mozilla's newsletters, blogs, and the press, and make sure they can be found in search engines. If necessary, we can consider Cordova-packaging so that our apps show up in searches in proprietary app stores.

Hosting

Hosting the apps themselves should be cheap, given that it's just static content, cached by ServiceWorkers.

End-user pricing structure for use of the telephony backend still tbd

Revenue Stream

Revenue model, Life time value revenue...

tbd

To do: find out what the revenue model for Thunderbird was, and copy that for our email web app.

Similar for other apps in our mobile apps suite.