So, in designing a Mozilla branded phone, half the equation is how Mozilla figures into things. We must understand its significance to users then communicate that across disciplines and into the phone’s physical embodiment. In approaching this problem, I had very little to go on beyond my own 4 years of personal experience using Firefox and Thunderbird. Mozilla doesn’t buy airtime and make abstract expressions of their identity and I doubt they’ve ever paid an agency to put together a mood board.
That leaves us with the combined insight of its users in defining what Mozilla and its subordinate products mean to the phone. What will make it a Mozilla Phone? How will the Mozilla Phone make you feel? What philosophies of user interaction can be ported over? Lets see some comments after the jump and I’ll give you my impression of the overall brand impact of Mozilla.
If you look at how users experience Mozilla and its products, there’s a very common starting point. Users start out with the standard Internet Explorer/Outlook combo without fail and that is what 68% of them stick with (unfortunately). But what becomes apparent is that while Mozilla users are born with IE, they choose Firefox. The conscious choice users make by installing Firefox empowers their web experience. Instead of accepting whatever the web throws at us, there’s a reversal of roles as users takes action to define how the web serves them.
Taking this perspective to the issue of the phone makes quite clear what role “Mozilla” will play in the Mozilla phone. Without delving into actual implementation, it is obvious the hardware interface of the phone needs to empower the user through choice. By giving the user the means to define how he or she interacts with media, contacts and the web, the relationship between the user and their phone fundamentally changes (in a good way).
Lets get your opinions
February 3, 2009 at 2:16 am
Corny, but I kinda agree.
but the power of firefox is in its extensions, without those its a gussied up IE. what the phone needs then is a killer developer platform, something Apple already does well.
February 3, 2009 at 10:08 am
I see were you’re going, but I’d take the thought process one step further. Don’t look at the fact that they made they choice, look at WHY they switched. If Firefox was a repackaged IE would the user have chosen it? It is the innovative web platform Mozilla continues to provide to this day that made some people choose Firefox. If you have a superior, innovate product people will make the right choice. Don’t give them choice, give them innovation.
February 5, 2009 at 12:31 pm
People love Mozilla for the same reasons they love Wikipedia, whether or not they contribute to the effort, the open nature promotes innovation. Apple has promoted innovation through closed walls and gag orders, which works just great as long as you have a visionary like Steve Jobs at your helm. Creating a democratic phone, a phone for and by the masses with an uncensored user/developer platform, and even more importantly, data access for the masses without tying us into nasty 2 year plans with nasty hidden fees… That would be a mozilla phone in my mind.
April 2, 2009 at 8:01 pm
If the MozPhone is like Firefox in a phone, it will be a winner, I have no doubt about that. You ask, Why? Billy hit it right on, it’s choice, but not only choice, innovative choice. The choice to make your phone a reflection of how you interact with the world. You want every one of those features that just irk you every time you use your phone, to begone, with a click of their finger. Maybe you want your phone to open as a camera, or straight into my favorites, or maybe not. People want their phone to understand them.
April 2, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Palm did it well.
December 15, 2009 at 9:53 am
Pictures recieved in e-mail