Firefox/Planning/2013-09-04
From MozillaWiki
Planning Meeting Details
- Wednesdays - 11:00am PT, 18:00 UTC
- Mountain View Offices: Warp Core Conference Room
- Toronto Offices: Finch Conference Room
- irc.mozilla.org #planning for backchannel
- (the developer meeting takes place on Tuesdays)
Video/Teleconference Details - NEW
- 650-903-0800 or 650-215-1282 x92 Conf# 99696 (US/INTL)
- 1-800-707-2533 (pin 369) Conf# 99696 (US)
- Vidyo Room: ProductCoordination
- Vidyo Guest URL
REMEMBER
These notes are read by people who weren't able to attend the meeting. Please make sure to include links and context so they can be understood.
Contents
Actions from Last Week
- joduinn - to book meeting with finkle,asa,marco to discuss metro on trains
Schedule & Progress on Upcoming Releases
Firefox Desktop
Current Releases
Beta (133)
Second last Beta for Fx24 goes to build tomorrow (Sep 5)
Aurora (54)
Nightly (134)
Firefox Metro
- Team working on Iteration #14 until Tuesday September 10.
- Forecasting another drop in team velocity at the conclusion of Iteration #14.
- Any revision to the Metro Preview release date due to the drop will be made for the start of Iteration #15.
- QA is regression testing Iterations #1 - #13.
20 Total; 0 Open (0%); 9 Resolved (45%); 11 Verified (55%);
Firefox Mobile
Current Releases
Beta (133)
- Firefox mobile Beta 8 delayed to Thursday(9/5) due to the following bugs :
- bug 860599 - Use Android DataSource::CreateFromURI instead of MediaStreamSource class to fix crashes from custom device modifications
- bug 907957 - On-demand decompression startup failure with Firefox on the HTC One X (Android 4.2.2)
- bug 896350 - Unable to open files by tapping the download complete notification
Aurora (54)
Nightly (134)
Developer Tools
- Last week was a work week in Paris
- demo screencasts of work in progress:
- Code-name 'Applicator'
- other great hacks: break on uncaught inspections, pixel inspection, live css editing export to an extension, loading extensions from a directory, new theme mockups, debugger inception, see all the gory details in the etherpad.
- contributor Luca Greco ported the Ember.js Chrome extension to Firefox as a weekend hack.
- Code-name 'Applicator' on track to land in 26, planning WebAPI emulation prioritization for 27 & 28 cycles.
Feedback Summary
Desktop
Firefox 23:
Star Rating = 4.0
No burning issues. USR 23 out this week.
Firefox 24 - Survey data later this week.
Mobile
UX & User Research
Market Insights from the Product Marketing Strategy Team
Desktop / Platform
Microsoft
- Nokia is reportedly planning to announce a Windows RT tablet codenamed Sirius [1], providing more context to Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia along with Nokia's logistics, supply-chain, distribution and partnerships worldwide [2], as Microsoft prepares to launch Windows 8.1 and potentially Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 [3].
- Google appears to be using user agent sniffing to deliver different experiences to different browsers rather than responsive design frameworks. Google also appears to be forcing IE10 to run in IE9 standards mode on the News page and header layout for pages delivered to mobile requires WebKit-specific CSS. [4]
Apple
- Apple acquired data-compression company from Sweden, AlgoTrim. [5] Algotrim's products enable decompression and compression for video and image processing in real time. It also provides advanced solutions for images like super resolution and computational imaging.
- While Twitter hashtags help drive exposure on the social network, new data from EdgeRank shows that Facebook hashtags have the opposite effect, providing no extra exposure or no viral reach. [6] EdgeRank's hypothesis is that the difference arises in how the hastags are used - hashtags are often used in promotional material which does the job of branding, but results in less engagement, less clicks and less Reach.
Mobile
- Microsoft is buying Nokia's devices business for 3.79 billion Euros and is licensing its patent portfolio for 10 years for another 1.65 billion Euros. The transaction is expected to complete in Q1 of 2014. Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, will be taking the position of Executive VP of Devices & Services at Microsoft. Nokia still retains the network equipment business and the mapping service HERE. Microsoft will also be licensing HERE for the next 4 years, as well as the device brands Lumia and Asha for current devices. New smartphones cannot use the Nokia brand.
- A report from Kantar places Windows Phone as a significant contender for the entry - level smartphone market in Europe. The agency studied device purchases for the 3 months leading up to July in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain and calculated that 8.2% of sales were on Windows Phone. This is the highest - ever level in those markets. The report also places the platform at 11.6% of sales in Mexico and the first time that the platform took number two in a major market.
- Google announced 1 billion Android activations and the name of the next version (4.4) to be KitKat. The main driver behind the evolution of the platform, however, are becoming the proprietary Google services that are updated through the Play Store. Ars Tehnica has a feature on them.
- Google bought WIMM Labs, a smartwatch maker, after a long relationship with the start-up.
- Local smartphone OEMs are gaining significant market share in Asia - Pacific. Up to 39% of units sold in Q2 2013 were from brands like MyPhone, Cherry Mobile, Xiaomi, Coolpad and K-Touch. While MyPhone and Cherry Mobile are popular in the Philippines, Xiaomi is gaining in the Chinese market alongside Lenovo and Samsung, and Micromax is going for the Indian market. Other brands include Smartfren in Indonesia, Ninetology and S-CSL in Malaysia, Q-Star and Mobiistar in Vietnam and i-Mobile in Thailand.
- The UK operator Three is dropping international roaming charges for its customers in 7 countries. When traveling to the Republic of Ireland, Australia, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Sweden and Denmark, customers will be billed as if they were still in the UK. This is significant in particular for data charges, as international calls and messages (to non - UK numbers) will still be billed as usual.
- Upcoming news: IFA, Europe's largest consumer tech show is going on this week in Berlin. Samsung and Sony will be making announcements. And next week Apple will hold a press event.
Product Marketing, Press & Public Reaction
Product Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization: This project is to help make sure we're making the most of the vast amounts of natural search traffic that shows up on our doorstep. Good news: we have identified a lot of low-hanging-fruit we can improve. We're now prioritizing the abundant recs and working with our fab WebProd team to implement these improvements. We're hopeful this will move the download and traffic needle in the key emerging markets we're focused on.
- Consumer Value Proposition Work: We've added Russia into the mix and have completed the in-person in depth interviews. Next up: the quantitative section which will tell us, en masse, which Firefox attributes appeal most to users within key target markets.
- Firefox Desktop Program Review: Supporting Asa on the desktop program review is a new priority for Q3
PR
"Firefox’s developer tools remain the niftiest in browserdom, offering the same code-scrutinizing capabilities as Safari and Chrome, but in a much sleeker, eye-catching package. I especially like its 3D view; the deeper each element on the page is nested, the more it protrudes toward you." - Nathan Alderman, MacWorld
"In the long run, Web Components will change how developers build their web apps and make it easier to reuse – and share – UI components. With both Mozilla and Google actively backing this development, it’s only a matter of time before these polyfills will only be necessary to support legacy browsers, though it’s not always clear when the main browser vendors plan to fully implement it.” - Frederic Lardinois, TechCrunch
- Firefox 23 review: Cheerful, cluttered, and a bit too eager to please, MacWorld
- Good News: Firefox Add-on to restore classic functionality when Australis launches, ghacks.net
- Mozilla Gets On The Web Components Bandwagon With Brick, Tech Crunch
- Browser wars: Chrome vs Firefox vs IE vs Safari, mybroadband
