Mobile/ProductPlanning/Notes-2014-03-11

Hot items

• We need to do a go/no-go for Phase 1 of Apps for Android: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/fxmarketplaceGONOGO
• Sync failures; what needs to happen in order to make these issues as actionable as possible on part of engineering?
  • bug 980478 - Sync fails to get token - invalid timestamp issues (TokenServerInvalidCredentialsException)
  • bug 967580 - (clockskew) Firefox Accounts (Sync) - 401 Unauthorized; credentials work fine on other device
  • bug 967712 - Firefox Accounts (Sync) - Invalid timestamp immediately after signing in
  • bug 975625 - Sync fails to sync data with invalid signature on Android 2.2 <== we wouldn't block on this but we need to track since we have the other issues festering

Feature discussion

• RTL support & Language switching status?
• Progress Bar Improvements for Tablets, esp Honeycomb placed on roadmap for Fx30:http://bugzil.la/980853, http://bugzil.la/980471
• Preferred web content language
  • rnewman, are there truly no other platform/backend pieces we need? : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/showdependencytree.cgi?id=881510&hide_resolved=1
  • We need to make sure ibarlow has the cycles to focus on this for Fx31
  • We also need to figure out a test plan and how to community-source this to minimize impact on paid staff QA and related contractors. Jeff to think about this and consult with community

Marketing

• We're hiring a Product Marketing Manager - the job posting is up and everyone should post it to their social networks:
  • https://careers.mozilla.org/en-US/position/oBtJXfwu

Insights

Note: We'll be flipping the format of the Insights section around a little bit starting next week. In this section we'll be presenting 4 or 5 articles that outline (what we think) is relevant to Firefox on Mobile. Each article will have a glib, one-line summary, a link to the article, a short paragraph that summarizes the issue, and a section on why it's important to Mozilla. The idea is to provide the information on Monday, and focus on questions around the material in-meeting.

Feedback welcome, and it means our commitment to posting top news items from the previous week on the previous Friday.

As expected, a slowish week this week given the MWC hangover.

• Google launching Android SDK for wearables: Sundar Pichai committed to releasing an SDK before the end of this month, to further push (Google-influenced) Android as an OS for connected devices, not just handsets, tablets, and streaming boxes.

• Chromecast numbers and expansion: In the same talk at SXSW, Pichai also disclosed the first soft numbers around Chromecast, which he said were "in the millions" as well as Google's intent to expand non-grey-market sales of Chromecast to a bunch of new countries, continuing their push for adoption and development.

• Personalization Apps on Android: Continuing a trend that's been running for a while, Flurry Analytics posted about how personalization of Android is a bigger target than ever for developers. In particular, launcher apps fall into this category, and we're seeing more and more of them as users look to have more control over their home screen experience.

• WhatsApp to offer in-app voice: An oversight from MWC, WhatsApp will be offering in-app voice calls in Q2 of this year. Facebook and WhatsApp are continuing to push into operator/provider strongholds and creating their own walled gardens. It's unclear what the back-end technology will be, but more and more services and apps are getting into providing voice and/or video, which presents opportunity and risk for WebRTC.

• Nokia Launches the X in India: As expected, Nokia launches the X, a non-Google Android phone that uses Opera, in India and Malaysia for ~$125USD.

Feedback

No update

Roadmap review

• Deb still has to move the Firefox Hub stuff around

Partner review

• No update

Roundtable