Despite support from the telco sector, open source software community Mozilla has failed to make an impact on the smartphone OS sector with its Firefox open mobile browser technology and has decided instead to focus its Firefox efforts on the IoT sector.

Mozilla's aim was to develop affordable, open source-based mobile devices that could help spread Internet connectivity in developing markets and it gained support from a number of telcos, particularly Telefónica , and handset manufacturers when it unveiled its mission in 2012.

But its impact has been minimal: Android has retained a firm grip on the mobile device OS market, with an 82.8% market share in the second quarter of 2015, followed by Apple's IoS on 13.9%, according to IDC.

So Mozilla has decided that it will turn its attention instead to an even bigger revolution than the emergence of smartphones -- IoT. In a blog posted on the Mozilla website, Ari Jaaksi, senior vice president of connected devices, said that it would work on IoT prototypes using "technologies developed as part of the Firefox OS project to give us a kick start."

For more on Mozilla's Firefox rollercoaster, see:

— Ray Le Maistre, , Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading