On 2014, I expected that by now:
- Tizen would have taken a big share of the car infotainment, appliance, and wearable markets.
- Firefox OS would have taken a big share of the entry-level Smartphone market, especially in developing economies.
- Ubuntu Mobile would have taken a small share of the Android/iOS Smartphone market.
As of 2020, the above [partially] happen (and it maybe that 6 years is not long enough)
- Tizen has made big inroads on all those markets, mainly supported by Samsung, but it has not yet taken over.
- Firefox OS was discontinued by Mozilla, but being Open Source, other companies (like Panasonic and Acadine) and projects (like B2G OS and KaiOS) were able to fork it and use it in their devices.
- Ubuntu Touch was also discontinued by Canonical, but again, being Open Source, the UBports community took it over and it’s working with Purism to bring a niche , security focus, Smartphone to market. Also, Pine64 supports the UBports fork on their PinePhone.
Probably the take away is that there is a latent and ever evolving and growing consumer market that demands devices that run Open Source mobile operating systems as they are more versatile and can outlive the company that created them pivoting, increasing cost sharply, or loosing interest in further development (which is usually the case with Close Source software and hardware).
Companies that create Open Source Software and/or Hardware have as their primary goals to be Agile, improve Society, and leave a Legacy; with a secondary goal of been profitable.
This approach, even that is counter-intuitive, actually works because as technology advances faster every year, having to support legacy proprietary technology eventually becomes a heavy burden and companies end up not been able to pivot on time to deal with new competition and/or trends, or they decide to abandon the product and make a lot of customers turn to their competitors. If Software and Hardware are Open Source, customers can get 3rd party support, create forks themselves or via a community or association, therefore letting the original company pivot and still been a loyal customer for whatever new products they develop in the future.
For more info, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizen
Viktor Godard 